A note from your instructor, John Brantingham

I recently retired and moved to New York State from the Los Angeles area where I was a full professor of English and creative writing at Mt. San Antonio College for 26 years, and where I directed the creative writing program. I was also a creative writing instructor for the MFA at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. I was the poet laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, the writer-in-residence at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona, and the series editor for online ekphrastic poetry collections (poetry collections about art) at the Sasse Art Museum in Pomona. I have published in hundreds of magazines and have 19 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction with publishers like Red Hen Press, Pelekinesis Press, and World Parade Books. For my entire career, I have specialized in working with people who wanted to find their voice in poetry, fiction, and memoir writing about art and/or the natural world.

Now that I have moved to Jamestown, NY, I would like to continue my work with adult students and community members by helping them to find their voices as writers. I would like to propose a workshop and reading series to be held at The Crary Art Gallery. During the course, participants would engage with the art and would understand it in a more direct, personal, and meaningful level. Rather than simply viewing the art, they would be internalizing it in a unique way. The workshop would culminate in a public reading of their work and a celebration of the art being displayed.