Open to All Workshop responding to Natalie Diaz - Recording and Poem Links from Marjorie's Table, 21st April
Open access to recording and poem links, warm up and final prompt from today's creative writing session on Natalie Diaz, plus further reading/listening links
Good morning writers! We had 48 early birds at Marjorie’s Table today, a cross between regular Monday Marjorie’s Table writers and those writing with me for the 30 days of April. If you’d like to try writing to the recording of one of the April sessions, the link for today’s workshop is open to all and available here.
Today’s workshop - as usual, some of our warm up words and the links to the poems from today’s session, including our take-away prompt, are below.
Warm Up - here are few gifted warm up words from today’s live writers: linen, zesty, shell, petal, blossom, searing, unsullied, petallic, wavy - feel free to steal these for use in your own writing.
Poems - we read Natalie Diaz’s “From the Desire Field” and a portion of “The First Water is the Body” and I gave the group the takeaway prompt of writing about a a river in your own body. The first poem, “From the Desire Field”, is from Envelopes of Air, a project of letter poems written by Ada Limón and Nathalie Diaz that you can still read on the New Yorker website. There’s also a beautiful podcast of the two of them discussing the project with Kevin Barry still live here. If you really want to go down the Natalie Diaz rabbit hole (and I recommend it wholeheartedly), here’s a podcast of Safiya Sinclair discussing “Desires of the Field”.
It’s not too late to join us for the remainder of April - another few writers joined over the past couple of days, with over 150 watching the recordings last week alone. For those joining now, I will send on links to the recordings for the sessions you’ve missed earlier in the month so you can use them over the next month or so.
We’ve had such good take-up for the April 30/30 that I also want to offer a bursary (free) place to anyone with financial constraints who would like to take part, or would like a bank of recordings to use in their own time in the next month. Please DM me if you’d like one - no questions asked, and no need to go into specifics. If you’re a paid subscriber to Marjorie’s Table (and don’t need a bursary place), there’s a also discount code to join for £20 beyond the paywall below.
April 2025 writers have already said about these workshops:
“this practice is adding to my life beyond writing”
“I am soooooo enjoying the morning workshops. I am learning so very much, as well as discovering a reservoir of material within me”
“the ability to do this in my own time is priceless for me”
If you’re not a regular subscriber and would like to join us for future weekly workshops like this one, please upgrade to a paid subscription (£5 a month). If you missed today’s live session, you can watch the recording via the link here.
The next Marjorie’s Table is from 7:30-8am on Monday 28st April. Login details will be emailed out to subscribers this week.
Happy writing! Marjorie