Rachelle Cruz
Author of God's Will for Monsters
Writer, Educator & Consultant
EXPERIENCING COMICS
Available now!
Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing, and Creating Comics shows students how to critically examine the craft and storytelling elements found inside a graphic novel or comic.
Experiencing Comics is an excellent resource for courses in creative writing or comparative literature that focus specifically on graphic novels and comics. It can also be used in gender studies, ethnic studies, and sexuality courses.
Paperback Format ISBN: 978-1-5165-1698-8
WORDS FOR GOD'S WILL FOR MONSTERS
“
"An award winner non-stop, a deeply serious, studied set of investigations, yet, playful, a Tumbler of blurred faces, light, time, space, paint, medicine, plants and plates At the hands of a spirit-caller-writer, word-levitator of the 21st Century. One of a kind."
JUAN FELIPE HERRERA
Poet Laureate of the United States
“
"More than ever, our world needs the aswang, the werebeast, and the wisdom of the women and bold voices calling out from Rachelle Cruz's marvelous debut collection. Cruz's vision holds many worlds: from the mythical landscapes of the "death dusk" to the streets of Hayward, California,
BRYNN SAITO, Author of Power Made Us Swoon
“
"...with God’s Will for Monsters, the poet conjures dreamspace,
incantation, oral history, myth, remittance slip, aswang bulletin,
greenbacks, Christ spells, and personal memory. The result is a
new-century revelation of so much glorious giggling grotesque culled
from our hidden narratives. "
PATRICK ROSAL
Author of Brooklyn Antidiluvian
Daycare for Writers is a flexible, encouraging, and supportive co-working space for writers who are parents. This summer, our goal is to help writer-parents dedicate time to generate work for their projects and to build community with others who balance the creative life, work, and child-rearing. Writers of any genre are welcome.
Dates: June 12-16; August 7-8
Sliding Scale is $800-$1000.
With thanks to Czaerra Ucol for the image and Hari Alluri for the name.
More about Daycare for Writers
In June, we'll set our individual and collective intentions for our time spent together; generate work using prompts; set goals for our writing; and meet our accountability pen pals.
Throughout the summer, you will check in with your accountability pen pal on their projects and vice versa. You're welcome to do writing sprints on Zoom, meet for coffee, or simply send messages of encouragement. Each pen pal relationship is based on the time, energy, scheduling, and shared interests of each partner.
In August, we'll meet again to exchange feedback in the "flipped workshop." Our approach to workshop is with honesty and kindness. And most importantly, we center the author’s voice and intentions in this space. We reject the “dead author” traditional style of workshop and instead provide a variety of generative feedback options for authors to choose from. Participants are welcome to use Rachelle's list of workshop models as possible ways to give and receive feedback on creative work. Her philosophy on the writing workshop was published in Poets & Writers in 2020.
Daycare for Writers will be offered in a hybrid format to maximize flexibility and access.
You can submit your application here.
BIO
Rachelle Cruz is from Hayward, California. She is the author of God's Will for Monsters, which won an American Book Award in 2018 and the 2016 Hillary Gravendyk Regional Poetry Prize. She was appointed the 2018-2020 Inlandia Literary Laureate during which founded a summer writing program for young people, Poetry is Power, among other community projects. She co-edited Kuwento: Lost Things, an anthology of Philippine Myths with Lis P. Sipin-Gabon. The second edition of her comics resources, Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing and Creating Comics, was published in 2021. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Poets & Writers Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, As/Us, Yellow Medicine Review, The Lit Pub, The Collagist, Bone Bouquet, PANK, Muzzle Magazine, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, among others. An Emerging Voices Fellow, a Kundiman Fellow and a VONA writer, she lives and writes in Southern California.
Brief Bio:
Rachelle Cruz is the author of God's Will for Monsters, which won an American Book Award in 2018 and the 2016 Hillary Gravendyk Regional Poetry Prize. She co-edited Kuwento: Lost Things, an anthology of Philippine Myths with Lis P. Sipin-Gabon. The second edition of her comics text resource, Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing and Creating Comics, was published in 2021. Her work has also appeared in Strange Horizons, Poets & Writers Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Yellow Medicine Review, among others.
You can contact her at rachelle [dot] a [dot] cruz [at] gmail.com.
Photo by Julienne Medina