The Plate is a Portal: Writing About Food

Workshop Description: Food holds the power to transport us. A good meal can collapse the distance between my past and my present, ferry me to faraway beloveds, or bring me closer to my inner child. For writers, food is an especially potent means to delve into memory, notions of home, cultural heritage, and relationships. In this workshop, intended for poets but 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 food poems together and discuss the role that food plays as a loaded cultural signifier, as a love language in the domestic space, and as a carrier for history. 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 food can nourish our writing.

About the Presenter: Devi Sastry is a writer, teacher, and editor from Bangalore, currently living in Brooklyn. Her life and her work revolve around food, family, and multilingualism. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University, where she also taught creative writing to undergraduates. Her poems have appeared in the lickety~split, Bengaluru Review, Koukash Review, and Mag 20/20 among other publications.

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