with Kyla-Yến Huỳnh Giffin & Mia Arias Tsang
Sliding scale $30-100 (via Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal)
Betrayal can often leave us feeling as if there has never been a hurt like this before, as if our pain is absolute and siloed, as if there is no way to make sense of the story of how and why the betrayal happened. In this generative writing workshop from Kyla-Yến Huỳnh Giffin and Mia Arias Tsang, open to writers of all genres and experience levels, we will uproot our writing from the surface of pain, and use readings and exercises to write into in-depth explorations of heartbreak that balance the multifaceted emotions and realities of these hurts, place our pain within larger contexts, lineages, and histories, and translate the ephemerality of betrayal into language.
About the instructors:
Kyla-Yến Huỳnh Giffin (they/them) is a queer and trans, biracial, Vietnamese American diaspora writer whose work revolves around themes of dreaming, fantasizing, and futurizing, and focuses on topics of diaspora, transness, ecology, empire, and intergenerational histories. They are a Press Editor for Half Mystic Press, an Associate Editor for Iron Horse Literary Review, the Director of Culture & Programming at Rawhead, a Member of the Reader Board at Sundress Publications, a Fiction Reader for Okay Donkey, and an independent creative writing instructor and workshop facilitator. Kyla-Yến's work has appeared in The Offing, Oroboro, Vănguard, and other publications. They have been awarded residencies, workshops, and/or fellowships from Tin House, the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), Seventh Wave, Abode Press, and more. You can visit Kyla-Yến's author page at www.kylayenhuynhgiffin.com, and find them on Instagram @yenshrine.
Mia Arias Tsang is a lesbian writer and freelance editor based in New York City. Her writing explores how queer people try and fail to love each other, and has been supported by VelvetPark Media and Tin House. After four years working in the nonprofit sector focusing on expanding literacy access, she is now pursuing an MLIS with the goal of becoming a young adult librarian. Her work has appeared in WITCH: ANTHOLOGY edited by Michelle Tea, Autostraddle, HerStry, Copy, Half Mystic Press, Fatal Flaw Magazine, and Broad Recognition Magazine, among others. She also writes the Substack newsletter “Overripe Peach,” which features funnier, more casual musings on media and sexuality. Her first book, FRAGMENTS OF WASTED DEVOTION, is out now with Quilted Press. She lives in Queens with her cat, Peanut, and is currently working on a novel. You can visit her website miatsang.com to order her book or learn more about her writing, and you can connect with her on Instagram @mia.arias.tsang.