Poo, Prose, and Flows: Connecting Cleveland’s Sewer Infrastructure to Your Creative Writing
Do you ever wonder what happens behind the walls of a wastewater treatment plant? Would you like to set a mystery in Cleveland's prodigious sewer system? Are you the kind of person who is inspired to write poetry about gravity thickening or sludge incineration?
Join us for a unique writing workshop in collaboration with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Together we will learn evocative wastewater treatment terminology, take a tour of the Westerly Plant, look at examples of infrastructure influenced writing, and create our own shitty first drafts. This class is free, but spots are limited!
Class Details
Prerequisites: None
Genre: Multigenre
Level: All levels
Format: Plant tour, discussion, in-class writing exercises and sharing
Location: NEORSD Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant (5800 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway)
Size: Limited to 12 participants.
Suggested Sequence: Follow this class with a generative fiction writing workshop or feedback course.
Work with the best...
Laura Maylene Walter is the author of the novel Body of Stars (Dutton, 2021) and the short story collection Living Arrangements (BkMk Press, 2011). Laura’s writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, Kenyon Review, Slate, The Sun, and many others. Laura is a founding editor of Literary Cleveland’s Gordon Square Review and is the Ohio Center for the Book Fellow at Cleveland Public Library, where she hosts Page Count, a literary podcast.
Christine Umerley, PE, is a Project Engineer for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. As part of the Planning group, she is responsible for projects that evaluate and forecast future needs, as well as tracking compliance with NEORSD's 25-year Project Clean Lake program. In her free time, you can find Christine hunched over her novel draft, behind a podcast mic, or performing in the Greater Cleveland theater community.
NEORSD Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant
5800 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway, Cleveland, OH 44102
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