With poet Molly Zhu!

Why are we drawn to horrific creation? Why can’t we turn away when we see a car crash on the freeway? Why are we both drawn to and repelled by, what is abject or subversive, or horrible or taboo? Abjection is the feeling of repulsion you feel when you encounter something that is usually and necessarily repressed in order to sustain some type of social order. Let’s explore this as it pertains to seventies dinner foods and other monstrosities.

There is no reading list but there is a thought list: please come to class with 1-2 ideas of your favorite works of art or inspiration having to do with horror. Mine are seventies dinner foods, specifically wet, oily, chopped liver igloos and jiggling Jell-O salads and fresh pork fruit cakes. I’ll explain in person…

About the Instructor: Molly Zhu is a Chinese American poet and attorney. She likes to write about alter egos, chasms, dreams, tears, rage, translation and the women in her life. She was twice nominated for Pushcart prizes and has been published in both print and online journals including Hobart Pulp, the Ghost City Press, and Bodega Magazine, among others. She serves as assistant poetry editor for Passengers Journal, and she is the winner of the 2021 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize awarded by the Cordella Press. Her debut chapbook, Asian American Translations, is now available for purchase.

* *This workshop will take place on Zoom.**