Urban Ecologies: Writing the Citified Outdoors
Workshop Description
This workshop brings the ideas surrounding nature writing to the cityscape surrounding the art museum. Participants will be invited to walk the grounds outside the museum and the surrounding block with a set of instructions for sitting and observing the world as it unfolds in Downtown Erie. Then, you will be asked to write down your observations and turn them into a poem, personal essay, or flash story. We will workshop this writing and discuss plans for revision.
Price
This workshop is operating on a sliding scale. You may purchase the workshop at a rate you feel financially comfortable with, up to the maximum class cost of $50. All students will receive the same instruction regardless of payment.
Sliding Scale: $10 - $50
Participants will be asked to check in and complete payment at the front desk upon arrival.
Dates & Times
Saturday, July 18th, 2 - 4 PM
Materials Required
Participants should bring writing material (no laptops), and pencils and paper will be provided for anyone who does not bring anything.
About the Instructor - Clayton Bradshaw-Mittal
Clayton Bradshaw-Mittal (they/them) writes queer, working-class prose and poetry. Their work has won the Plaza Short Story Prize; been a finalist for the AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize, Iron Horse Literary Review/Texas Tech University Press First Book Prize, the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, the Kinder-Crump Award for Short Fiction at Pleiades, the Charles Simic Poetry Prize, and the Saints + Sinners LGBTQ Short Fiction Prize, among others; and longlisted for the W.S. Porter Prize at Regal House Publishing.
Bradshaw-Mittal’s work has been supported by Community of Writers, MASS MoCA, the Vermont Studio Center, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and Tin House. In 2026, they received a Lydia McCain Artist Fellowship from Erie Arts and Culture. They hold a BA in English from Sam Houston State University, an MFA in Fiction from Texas State University, and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Mississippi.