Authors & Writing: Renee Shea

Join Renee Shea for a workshop at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, July 3 as part of Lakeside’s Authors & Writing Series. This workshop, titled “Writing Poetry in Response to Art: Ekphrastic Creative Writing With Renee Shea,” will be held in the Fountain Inn Aigler Room.

Join this workshop to inspire your inner poet by responding to a work of visual art – that is, writing ekphrastic poetry. To explore the process of ekphrasis, Greek for writing about objects and art, we will discuss a few celebrated poems that describe a visual image in vivid language, interpret it from an original viewpoint, or even challenge an artist’s vision. Then, participants will try their hand at writing their own ekphrastic poems by responding in one of these three ways to a classic or contemporary painting, photograph, or object. A range of poems and images will be provided for discussion. Aspiring writers of all ages are invited to join this workshop.

Renee Shea was Professor of English and Modern Languages at Bowie State University, part of the University System of Maryland, for nearly twenty years.  During her tenure, she served as Director of Freshman Composition and a member of the Honors Faculty; she taught undergraduate courses in American and world literature and seminars in Rhetorical Theory and Practices in the English M.A. program. Shea frequently consults with the College Board and local school districts, especially for Advanced Placement programs. She has a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston IL, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Shea frequently writes for academic and literary journals including Poets & Writers, World Literature Today, Callaloo, the Journal of Haitian Studies, and Women in the Arts.  She has interviewed and profiled numerous contemporary authors, including Celeste Ng, Manuel Munoz, David Baker, Namwali Serpell, Rita Dove, Tracy K. Smith, Edwidge Danticat, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sandra Cisneros, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lan Cao, Amy Tan, and Arundhati Roy. (Links and PDFs available upon request.) She is currently lead author for the English Language Arts (9-12) textbooks for Bedford Freeman Worth:  The Language of Composition, Literature and Composition, Advanced Language and Literature, Foundations of Language and Literature, and American Literature and Rhetoric.