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The Plate is a Portal
A Generative Journey through Food and Language
Facilitator
Food holds the power to nourish and sustain us, to delight and transport us. A good meal can collapse the distance between my past and my present, ferry me to faraway family, or bring me closer to my inner child. For writers, food is an especially potent means to delve into memory, notions of home, heritage, and relationships.
In this workshop, open to writers in all genres, we will consider the plate as a portal, reaching through sensorium and memory to explore what food can offer to our practice. We will read prose and poetry about food together and discuss the role that food plays as a cultural signifier, as a love language in the domestic space, as a carrier for history, and more.
Through guided generative work, participants will be invited to consider the food that has nourished them in its fullness – where it comes from, what historical and personal narratives it holds, what language it allows them to access, how it might have changed over time. We’ll read, write, and share, working together to discover the ways in which the theme of food can nourish our writing.
While the workshop will be conducted in English, and we’ll be reading primarily English-language texts, writers are welcome to make use of any language(s) they wish to.
Facilitator
Devi Sastry
Devi Sastry (she/her) is a writer, teacher, and editor from Bengaluru. Her life and her work revolve around food, family, and multilingualism. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University, and she has taught creative and critical writing at NYU and Montclair State University. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, the lickety~split, Bengaluru Review, Koukash Review, and Mag 20/20, among other publications. She’s currently working as an Educational Arm Assistant at Asymptote Journal.
