Writing in Place
Students in Cynthia Zarin’s spring 2020 creative writing workshop, “Writing About Place,” never expected to write their final essays from lockdown, stuck in various apartments and childhood homes across the country. The class spent the first half of the semester writing about places they'd visited, routes they'd taken, and campus buildings with opportunity for exploration. For the final assignment, Professor Zarin asked her English 478 students to reflect on their current realities with essays entitled “Writing in Place.” These essays deal with how to process and describe loss as it occurs, how to discuss personal sadness despite feeling grateful, and above all, how to find joy in unexpected places.
"Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”