Description

Formed in France in 1960 by poet Raymond Queneau and mathematician François Le Lionnais, the members of OuLiPo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle / Workshop for Potential Literature) found inspiration at the intersection of creative constraints and the freedom to break form. This workshop offers generative writing exercises designed to free the mind and creative spirit so that we may shape and release new and unexpected literary creatures into the world.

We’ll explore the history of Oulipo and a range of constraints and nontraditional forms with a spirit of experimentation through readings and generative prompts. Attendees will leave this hands-on workshop with a portfolio of new starts that include lipograms, palindromes, anaphora, erasure, “found” texts, intaglio portraits, sestinas, and other constraint-based writing.

As a collective, we will drink mightily from the Oulipo spirit of playful postures and endless outcomes to create the strange, the haunted, and the inspired. We will attempt new structures and patterns, which writers may shape and develop in any way they enjoy. Together we will become, as Queneau described, “rats who construct the labyrinth from which they plan to escape.”

In-class writing exercises offer a range of productive models for attendees to
respond to creatively. The only qualifications for this workshop are a curious mind, the urge to experiment with writing, and the desire to create new work.