From Word to Word: A Generative Writing Workshop

September 11, 2022
IN PERSON AT RABBI AMICHAI’S HOME + ON ZOOM
12:00 – 2:00 PM ET

Midrash is a uniquely Jewish imaginative practice in which sacred texts generate new sacred texts. We will begin our generative workshop by studying midrashic poems from The Missing Jew and other sources. Then we will practice producing new work from texts provided by Rodger.  (You may also bring your own texts.) The work you produce can take the form of poetry in verse, prose poetry, poetic prose, or non-fiction, whatever genre you feel most comfortable with.  We will share the results, laugh a little and learn how to open up to the possibility of renewing sacred texts through soulful imagination.

RODGER KAMENETZ IS A POET AND NON-FICTION WRITER. HIS SINGULAR INTEREST IS THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIMARY IMAGINATION FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. HIS MOST RECENT BOOK IS THE MISSING JEW: POEMS 1976-2022 REPRESENTING NEARLY FIFTY YEARS OF POETRY OF THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE. FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE MFA PROGRAM IN CREATIVE WRITING AT LSU, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM THERE AS WELL, HE HELD THE STERNBERG HONORS CHAIR AND IS CURRENTLY PROFESSOR EMERITUS. RABBI ZALMAN SCHACHTER-SHALOMI Z”L HONORED HIM AS A MAGGID FOR HIS WORK IN WRITING AND WITH DREAMS. RODGER IS AUTHOR OF FIFTEEN BOOKS OF POETRY AND PROSE, AMONG THEM THE JEW IN THE LOTUS, STALKING ELIJAH WHICH WON THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD, THE HISTORY OF LAST NIGHT’S DREAM AND BURNT BOOKS. HE LEADS AN INTERNATIONAL GROUP OF NATURAL DREAMWORK PRACTITIONERS WHO TEACH A PATH TO THE SOUL THROUGH DREAMS.