Art in Everyday Language: Found, Generated, Created

Art in language is all around. We find it sliding out from an inebriated idiom incorrected, generated from trolls, bots or carefully-coded AI’s, or created from grocery lists crumpled at the bottom of grocery bags. Where will you find this bit that you’ll bring to us? Why does it matter? Maybe it’s the context that wraps its joints in meat. What matters is that you’ve uncoupled it from where it first appeared. The challenge is to look, find and peel the poetry from places that seem mundane or commonplace.  

Authors of poetry and writing generated in-workshop are encouraged to share their work with the community during a reading on March 19th from 7-9pm at Back of Beyond Books.

About the Instructors: 

Native of Utah, Shari Zollinger has a BS in History from Utah State University. She spent six years of her life living in Taiwan, part of that time spent attending the Stanford Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei. Her love of language has directly inspired her work as a poet. Her poems have appeared in the Sugar House Review, Redactions: Poetry and Poetics, and The Desert Voice. Her book, Carrying her Stone was inspired by the works of Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. She works at Back of Beyond Books in Moab, Utah as their lead buyer.

Ben hails from Northern Virginia and moved to Moab in April of 2021 for a term as an AmeriCorps service member. He now works for Grand County. Before moving west, he studied history and poetry at Bard College and volunteered as a tutor with the Bard Prison Initiative. Ben loves all animals dearly and makes a point to say hello to each cow he encounters when he’s out off-roading, backpacking, or just taking a stroll.

Class will be held in the Stage room. 

Ages  16+