Writing from the Bottom of the Mind: A Generative Writing and Meditation Workshop with Ivy Raff (In-Person at HVWC)

In this half-day generative writing workshop, Ivy Raff guides participants to learn and hone a Zen approach to writing. With the primary objective of clearing mental clutter and writing from “the bottom of the mind,” students will first learn the simple and effective concepts of Zen writing practice. We intersperse guided sitting meditations with timed, prompted writings in pairs. We reconvene the full group to read and listen uncritically to each other’s work. Participants are encouraged to bring a lunch for the half hour break.

BIO

Ivy Raff is the author of What Remains/Qué queda (Editorial DALYA, forthcoming 2026), a bilingual English/Spanish poetry collection that won the Alberola International Poetry Prize, and Rooted and Reduced to Dust (Finishing Line Press, 2024), hailed by Pulitzer finalist Bruce Smith as "lacerating, fearless.”  Poems and translations appear in such journals as Ninth Letter, Poetry Northwest, Iron Horse Literary Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Electric…