When Writers Meet the Storm: Author Workshop with Michigan Writers

How to use the Storm (Gale, Drought, Fire, Tsunami, Heat Wave, Hurricane, Blizzard, etc.) to write your way through the tough stuff.  For poets, nonfiction writers, and fiction writers: all will find this helpful!

This program is brought to you courtesy of a partnership between Michigan Writers and the Traverse Area District Library. You can register for this event by either registering with the library below OR registering with Michigan Writers on their website.

In this workshop, poet and author Jenifer DeBellis invites writers to utilize natural phenomena—in the form of severe storms, disasters, or other weather patterns—as unifying motifs to generate writing that juxtaposes extreme forces of nature with one’s identity politics and/or past experiences. Writers will examine (wo)man versus storm/phenomenon through prompt writing to uncover what happens when memory collides with forces of nature. Some major themes this workshop will explore include modes of tension, place-based inspiration, and mining memories that reveal identity and how these help poets and writers tap into the story within the story.

Ask yourself: What can happen when memory collides with forces of nature?  A variation of this prompt was used to develop the opening poem in New Wilderness, “After the Rain,” which shows writers the power the storyteller brings to the finished work. It’s a rich connection to what we see happening with storytimes on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube, not to mention the variety of creative work that poets and writers bring to stages everywhere (like The Moth, TEDx, open mics, poetry festivals, readings and performance events). 

Jenifer DeBellis, M.F.A., is author of New Wilderness (a 2023 International Book Awards finalist), Warrior Sister, Cut Yourself Free from Your Assault, and Blood Sisters. Her freelance career spans over two decades, allowing her to ghostwrite and edit literary and mass media content. She edits Pink Panther Magazine and directs aRIFT Warrior Project and Detroit Writers’ Guild (501c3). She's featured in Psychology Today and Seattle's My Independence Report and her writing appears in AWP's Festival Writer, CALYX, the Good Men Project, Medical Literary Messenger, Solstice, and other fine journals. A former Meadow Brook Writing Project fellow, JDB facilitates summer workshops for Oakland University as well as teaches at Macomb Community College. JeniferDeBellis.com