The Plate is a Portal: Writing About Food

Workshop Description: Food holds the power to transport us. A good meal can collapse the distance between my past and my present, ferry me to faraway beloveds, or bring me closer to my inner child. For writers, food is an especially potent means to delve into memory, notions of home, cultural heritage, and relationships. In this workshop, intended for poets but open to writers in all genres, we will consider the plate as a portal, reaching through sensorium and memory to explore what food can offer to our practice. We will read food poems together and discuss the role that food plays as a loaded cultural signifier, as a love language in the domestic space, and as a carrier for history. Through guided generative work, participants will be invited to consider the food that has nourished them in its fullness – where it comes from, what historical and personal narratives…