City Summer Youth Academy is for students ranging from incoming 6th graders through currently enrolled high school students. CSYA is underwritten by a generous grant from the Wells-Fargo Foundation.

The Secret Lives of Things: Writing from Objects

Monday-Friday, 6/12-6/16/2023, 9:00am-11:30am, online

Instructor: Nora Boxer

Look around you—you’re surrounded by “things.” Yet in one light, “things” don’t exist. Everything material around us is made from an interplay of forces, ideas, other things, personal memories, cultural memories, necessity, time …. We’ll play with these storied and poetic aspects of materiality, going deep into the secret lives of things as we work to create new writing. Over Zoom, we’ll share our stories about the objects that surround us in our homes and in nature. We’ll do in-class writing exercises, read short published creative works which focus on “things,” and take a peek at “thing theory,” where scholars examine some of the depths of what it means to live in a material world. You’ll also have the opportunity to share and discuss your creative writing with the group! 

This will be a live synchronous course. Students will need a computer or smart phone with webcam and microphone, internet and web streaming capacity, and the Zoom application installed to their device. You will also need a designated notebook and something to write with.

Instructor Bio:

Nora Boxer has taught a variety of creative writing classes for adults at City Extension since 2015, and previously worked as a writer-in-the-schools with youth writers in Austin, TX. Formerly a long-time Bay Area resident, Nora is now a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches undergraduate classes. www.noraboxer.com