Creative Writing About Pie
Taught by Michael Mendonez
Michael is a recent English graduate from The College of New Jersey and a renegade teacher for hire. He is currently teaching SAT classes as well as in the process of getting his substitute teacher's certificate. He has worked in the classroom and had various workshops with several published and award-winning writers. He spends most of his time either writing (or staring blankly at a Macbook screen), working on songs with his band Green Paper, or cooking whatever he has the financial ability to get his hands on (he has not yet gone so far as to chase after the turkeys in his backyard). He is young and enthusiastic to teach anything related to English and literature, and you can bet your top dollar that he will one day be leading workshops for young writers like himself.
There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
-George Bernard Shaw
In the process of writing, focus is a necessity. With all of the possible people, places, ideas, and things to write about, how can someone sit down and begin writing with confidence? The answer is in picking a restriction. Start with an item, a symbol, or even a form, and you will find that it will give way to a world of creative energy.
In this class, our source of focus and inspiration will be pie. Yes, pie. Pie can be many things. It can be a child’s home and comfort. It can be a young baker’s life-long ambition. It can be a clown’s comic device. It can be a diabetic’s demon. In this class, each one of you will work to create one writing piece, either a work of poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, by using pie as your creative focus (and yes, we will be having pie!).
Together we will explore how different writers and poets use food as a means to achieve different literary purposes. We will look at contemporary writers and poets as well as sociological pieces on the impact of food in our society. From Green Eggs and Ham to Eve and the forbidden fruit, literature is inseparable from food’s powers of desire, necessity, pain, and comfort. This class is for all levels of both writers and pie-lovers. Come take this class to get a taste of a fresh look at writing.
