The University of Akron Press and Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre in collaboration with ArtsNow, welcome award-winning author and founder and director of Immigrant Writing at Black Lawrence Press, Abayomi Animashaun to host the third of four generative writing workshops on self-care for writers.

The Art of Balance: How Managing Professional Networking Can Be Self-Care
In this session, we will be discussing the importance of balancing networking with self-care. We will discuss and explore how the business of writing can be made more viable when practiced in stead with the kind of communal and artistic nurturing that allows for growth, renewal, and faith in the writer's work and calling. 

Abayomi Animashaun
Abayomi Animashaun is the founder and director of Immigrant Writing at Black Lawrence Press, an initiative with programs designed to support and provide a home for immigrant authors at different stages of their writing careers. Animashaun is the author of three poetry collections and editor of three anthologies. He is a recipient of the Hudson Prize, Prairie Schooner's Hugh J. Luke Award, and a grant from the International Center for Writing and Translation. Abayomi Animashaun's work has also been long-listed for the Wole Soyinka Prize and nominated for the Naomi Long-Madgett prize and the Pen/Joyce Osterweil prize. He is a poetry editor at The Comstock Review and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.  

Thanks to a generous ArtsNow grant, this workshop is provided at no charge. In addition, the first 20 registrants will receive a free copy of a resource text published by The University of Akron Press.

The University of Akron Press and Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre in collaboration with ArtsNow, welcome extremely talented and accomplished poet, Mixby Dickon to host the fourth of four generative writing workshops on self-care for writers.

Building the Community: How Writing Socially is Self-Care
In this workshop, we will discuss and practice using resistance writing as a form of self-care. While the focus will be on poetry, the elements of psychic self-defense and preserving voice (particularly within workshop settings) can be applied universally. We will also discuss writing, as a social activity, as a tool for building communities of solidarity and trust, and as a means of showing others that they are not alone.

Mixby Dickon
Mixby (she/they) is a non-binary poet, anarchist, and occasional book reviewer. When she is not reading her poems to her roommate's cat, she is looking up vegetarian recipes, practicing kitchen witchcraft, and exploring local music scenes. They are a graduate of the NEOMFA, and their work can be found in Rubbertop, American Book Review, West Trade Review, The Red Noise Collective, and Haymaker.

Thanks to a generous ArtsNow grant, this workshop is provided at no charge. In addition, the first 20 registrants will receive a free copy of a resource text published by The University of Akron Press.