Write, Edit, Share

Three Months of Writing Events

Join Oak Ridge’s Poet Laureate, Dr. Erin Elizabeth Smith, and writers of all experience levels, for three events from February to April which highlight the main components of the writing experience—writing, editing, and sharing the work with your community. All events will be held in the Oak Ridge Public Library’s Small Meeting Room, and participants can join for one or more of the events!

On February 25th from 2-4PM, we will gather for two hours of drop-in generative writing sessions which will feature group-created prompts and spaces for folks to write and share the work they create.

On March 25th from 2-4PM, we will come together in small workshop groups to share our work, offer suggestions for revision, and talk about the ways that we can make each other more empathetic writers and readers. Participants should plan to bring (8) print copies of a piece of work that they would like to discuss. These pieces can be created at the previous WES event or something entirely new. Please bring no more than (1) poem or up to (4) pages of prose (fiction or nonfiction).

On April 29th from 2-4PM, we will have a showcase of the work created and edited during the previous two events with an open mic reading. Writers will be able to read new work, join in community with other writers, and celebrate the writing everyone has created. This will be a true open mic, so participation in previous events is not required.

Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Executive Director for Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently DOWN (SFASU 2020), and her work has appeared in Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American, among others. Smith is a Distinguished Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the Poet Laureate of Oak Ridge, TN.