From the time we’re small, we’re all taught how to see and think.  Advanced study will teach you how to look at scholarly work as a pattern that can be taken apart and studied. While being able to know what we think about the things we read and see are obviously critical, the more dedicated we are to the mind, the less connected we become to bodies. In this talk, I am not going to teach you the craft of writing, I’m going to teach you the craft of feeling.

In Writing Complex Emotions, we are going to learn how to feel our somatic sensations; to identify the splashes and pulses trapped beneath years of avoidance and academic discourse and learn how to capture their textures on the page. Whether you’re a literary wonder like George Saunders or a beginner, understanding emotions isn’t enough. You must feel them. Let me show you how.

REGISTER HERE ($20). FREE for Paragraph Members. Become a Member then RSVP.

Amanda Stern is a fourth generation native of Manhattan; raised without an accent. Her work has appeared in the New York Times; theNew York Times Magazine;  the New York Times Book Review; Filmmaker, The Believer, Salon, Blackbook, St. Ann’s Review, Post Road and others. Her personal essays have been included in several anthologies: Love is a Four Letter Word, The Marijuana Chronicles, Women in Clothes, among others. She has published thirteen books, nine for children, two for young adults, and one novel of literary fiction, The Long Haul. Her most recent book is a memoir called Little Panic, which came out on June 19, 2018 from Grand Central. In 2012 she was a NYFA fiction fellow, and she was a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick in 2018 for her memoir, Little Panic. Because she is a writer, she is legally obligated to live in Brooklyn.