West Windsor Arts Council will begin the exploration of the theme of “Home is Where” by offering a one-day workshop focused on writing the personal essay led by novelist and essayist Sung J. Woo on Sunday, April 17, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. $20.
The workshop is for writers at all levels of experience including adults, college students, and juniors/seniors in high school. Participants will be encouraged to express joy, pain, passion, or feelings of isolation relating to the theme in the essay workshop. They will have time to write followed by an opportunity to read their draft and receive feedback. Participants should bring a pen and a notebook or paper.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Woo came to the U.S. with his family when he was 10 years old. A graduate of Cornell University, he received an MFA from New York University. Woo lives in Washington Township.
Woo’s short stories and personal essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, PEN/Guernica, and KoreAm Journal. His novels include “Love Love,” 2015, and “Everything Asian,” 2009, which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award in the youth category.
Following the workshop, Woo will give a free public reading from 4 to 4:45 p.m., answer audience questions, and sign copies of his book. Light refreshments provided by Roots Asian Kitchen will be served during the reading. Register at www.westwindsorarts.org.
“Home is Where,” will also be the subject of an upcoming exhibit of the visual arts at the West Windsor Arts Center to be held July 10 to September 11.
“Through examples and instruction, our featured author will help participants dig through life cycle transitions, personal and situational challenges, tragedies and upheavals in order to find pivotal remnants of places, objects, people, feelings, sounds, sights, and foods,” says Elane Guterman, president of the West Windsor Arts Council board of trustees and chair of the Literary Arts Committee. “Our workshop leader inspires with his witty, irreverent style, mining experiences within his immigrant family to convey the tragicomedies of struggling immigrants both from the perspective of parents trying so hard to survive and keep old country ways and children gripped by a new country, eager to shed differences.”
Following the workshop, participants will be invited to submit revised personal essays by Tuesday, May 17, to be judged by a former language arts teacher from High School South. Selected entries will be read at a future WWAC event.
Literary and Arts Workshop, West Windsor Arts Council, 952 Alexander Road, West Windsor. Sunday, April 17, 1 p.m. Refreshments. Register. $20. 609-716-1931. www.westwindsorarts.org.
