Sundress Academy for the Arts Presents: Writing with Pop Culture

The Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) workshop series is proud to present “Writing with Pop Culture.” This workshop will be led by Emily Capettini on Wednesday August 12, 2020, from 6:00 to 7:30pm ET online. Join us at tiny.utk.edu/sundress with password safta.

From novels to smash-hit musicals, the retelling and reimagining of classic stories like fairy tales has always been popular. But what about modern pop culture? How can a writer engage with television shows, music, or video games in a way that feels original and authentic? This multigenre workshop will focus on the benefits pop culture brings to creative work and include readings that incorporate pop culture like Pokémon, Law and Order: SVU, Harry Potter, Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness, and professional swimmer and aquatic performer Annette Kellerman. 

The benefits to engaging with pop culture are, among others, a chance to push back against an uncomfortable or problematic narrative or use familiar characters or narratives to investigate a lived experience or identity.  During this workshop, participants will brainstorm 2-3 pop culture characters, celebrities, or narratives they are interested in. We will also discuss what new narrative opportunities these pop culture elements can create in our poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. The workshop will conclude with some writing exercises and sharing of work. 

Emily Capettini is a queer fiction writer from the Midwest who loves a good ghost story. She is the author of Girl Detectives, a chapbook of flash fiction about Velma Dinkley and Daphne Blake, forthcoming from Porkbelly Press in October 2020 and Thistle (Omnidawn 2015). Her other work can be found most recently in places such as Middle House Review, The Spectacle, Lammergeier, Permafrost, Dream Pop Journal, and Passages North, among others. She is Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications and Assistant Professor of English at Indiana State University, where she teaches literature and creative writing.

In her free time, Emily makes nerd-themed crafts and watches too much Doctor Who.

Her Venmo is ‘Emily-capettini‘.

Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) is a writers residency and arts collective that hosts workshops, retreats, and residencies for writers in all genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, journalism, academic writing, playwriting, and more.