My Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop Experience

In this episode,  I detail my experience applying to and participating as a poet in the 2022 Kenyon Review's Writer's Workshop  in Gambier, Ohio. 

Link for more information:
https://kenyonreview.org/kenyon-review-writers-workshops/

Transcript

0:00

Hi, and welcome to Tula to Quit, the podcast for literary writers. Tula to Quit is an educational podcast documenting and commiserating on all things literary and writerly. I am your host, Terry Lynn Davis. like my experience applying and then participating in Canyon Reviews Writers Workshop. It's over the summer. There are multiple workshops that they hold. There's the summer residential workshop, which is what I did. And then there's Summer Online Workshop and then there's a Summer Online Workshop for teachers. And I think they also have one for young writers, too. But I did the summer residential workshop. The tagline is it's a week long residential writing workshop. They have fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. It takes place at Kenyan College in Gambier, Ohio. And this is the description on the website. But it says, unlike other writing workshops, the Kenya Review writing workshops are generative, focused on giving writers time and space to produce new work. And that's actually what drew me to this workshop in particular, that it was generative and that I was going to come out of it with a bunch of new homes. So for applying, this is, like, a very popular workshop. A lot of people know about the Kenya Review being a prestigious literary magazine. Also, the writing Workshop, it's free to apply, which I think is fairly unusual. So I applied, thinking, yeah, I'll give it a shot. I'm looking at my submittable right now, but I applied January 7, so I think I put together five poems, and then they actually accepted me February 8. So that's like a month in between, which if you submit, you know, that's pretty quick. That was pretty quick. So within a month, I knew that I had been accepted to the Kenyan Review Writers Conference. I was shocked. But I think something that helped me was that I've applied to things before, like the Sustainable Arts Foundation. I applied to that. It's for parents, writers who are our parents, and they give a lot of feedback for that particular grant or the people that read the submissions, they're free to give, like, feedback. And one thing that they said that I think helped my Kenyan Review packet was that was that try to make the packet of poems, like, my five poems. Like, if you submit five poems, like, make sure it's like a little mini manuscript, like, it would read as that was. And I do think that helped. Another thing I did was I didn't apply for a scholarship. They do have, like, a scholarship that you could apply for. So it was paid. I decided I wasn't going to ask for one. And then I also didn't put. So I made it seem as if I was as flexible as possible. There's actually two sessions of this workshop. They were session one, which ran from June 12 to 18th, and then there's session two, which is July 10 through 16th. So I put that I didn't have a preference for which one I attended, so that I think helped me. And then I also didn't have a preference for what instructor I received either, so I don't know if that helped, but it definitely didn't hurt. And I ended up going being accepted to the session one, and that was from June 12 to 18th. And as far as I'm aware, both sessions run pretty similarly, except that they have different faculty teaching and obviously different participants. So I really had no I didn't have much of an idea about what I was getting into when I said, yeah, absolutely, let's do this, because they sent me the acceptance February 8. And then you had to put a $500 deposit down, so I was able to do that at night. The cost of the workshop is $2,295, and that covers tuition, housing in a dorm room, which is a single dorm room you don't have to share, and three meals a day, so you got breakfast, lunch and dinner covered. The travel expenses are the responsibility of the participant. And then it also says, for those interested, returning participants receive a $250 discount to the $500 deposit goes towards that $2,095. Yeah, so there was a few things they sent me through submitable, like I had to do. You were able to stay in, like, a dorm, a college dorm room, which is what I decided to do because that wasn't extra. You can still able to stay in, like, other houses. You can stay in something called I stayed in a Matter residence hall, which is like a single room with a shared bathroom, which didn't bother me. And it says for like, an additional $300, you can request to stay in the North Campus Apartments. And one of my friends stayed in the North Campus Apartments, and it was like a townhouse, and she actually was alone in that whole big house, which I think it's good, but also, if you're confused, you're not around people. So that was something I was glad to have stayed in the dorm, all residents were air conditioned. That was nice. Everything was fine. It was a fine experience there. The bathrooms were fine. I really didn't have to wait for bathrooms or anything like that. I've never actually even been in a dorm. I've never lived in a dorm at all, so I was a little unsure of how that would work. But the dorm room totally fine. And then you also would be able to they also would give you a discount, like, of $150. If you wanted to, like, stay at a hotel or a bed and breakfast in the area, you'd be responsible for that. But they have, like, the Kenyan Inn, the Rogan House, and I don't know how many people actually did that. I think most people probably flew and they had shuttles from the airport that took them to Kenyan College. But I decided to drive because I like to feel a little bit more in control. And truthfully, I'm kind of afraid of flying. So I drove. It was like 9 hours. I preferred having a car there. That was something I needed and I would end up feeling grateful to myself for choosing to drive. Actually, I drove from Connecticut. I'm in Connecticut and this is Ohio. I planned on doing podcast stuff while I was there, but that did not end up happening at all. And I ended up I actually haven't done a podcast episode in like a month just because I've felt a little bit out of sorts, I guess after such a big trip, because I'm just not used to going anywhere. I have an eight month old, a three year old, and eleven year old, and leaving them for a week was super hard for me. And I knew that was going to be probably my biggest issue going in, that I was going to miss them so much that I didn't want it to affect my performance. And inevitably it was a lot. It was definitely a lot to be away from them. But that was a month ago now. Over a month ago now. So the week went by super quick and it was like I had never left. But that was going to be my biggest challenge was missing home. And I was really trying to not miss home too badly. So instead of doing podcast stuff, I actually wrote things down. And I have this journal, this kind of bullet journal, this loose bullet journal that I've used for years now. And I wrote stuff down like everyday. So I'll just kind of tell you everything I don't know because when I got accepted into this so I really didn't know much about it, I was like, how many people are even going to be in my group? How many people were accepted? Like, what exactly is happening? So this is why I'm doing this podcast on this, because I couldn't find a ton about how the Kenny Review Writer Workshop works. The Young Writers for people in high school, there seems to be a little bit more information on that. But this is for adults. I think you had to probably be 21 because they did have alcohol there and I'm sure they wouldn't have served it if they had to check IDs. I left on Sunday, June 12.

I woke up at actually 03: 10:01

30 a.m. To drive and so it took me 9 hours.

I left it like 04: 10:08

00 a.m. And I was just excited to get there. So 9 hours was totally fine for me. I just listened to podcasts, I listened to music, I talked on the phone sometimes, but that was cool. I don't mind driving and I've not driven by myself in so long, so it was actually kind of nice to drive. So when I got to I drove through farmland, and I was like, oh God, please let me not have gone the wrong way. So Kenyan college is kind of in the middle of nowhere. There's tons of just farms around. So when I got there, I was super confused. There's actually a ton of camps going on, actually, at the college at the same time. There was, like, swimmers, there was a lacrosse camp. There was just like a ton of young kids also, along with their writers. And that wasn't too bad. It was just kind of confusing for me when I first got there, and I wasn't with a bunch of people. Most people came in with other participants, like from the shuttle, from the plane, but I was kind of on my own. So I went to the welcome house and they gave me my key. They gave me a key to the dorm. They told me where to park. There's like, interns, I think they're interns, I honestly forget. But there was like, Kenyan college students helping out with the process, and I think they're actually on call almost 24 hours a day. They switch these interns for people to have questions. They have like a hotline or something for the week. And we were in this welcome house, and they gave me the packet of information, like a map with the longest part of it was probably getting my things in the dorm because I wasn't sure you're not sure what you're doing. So the dorm, I packed a ton because I wanted to feel comfortable. If I had flown, it would probably be different story, and I wouldn't have had such a hard time getting all of my stuff in. But I over packed, and I was pleased with driving so that I could pack so much and not feel, I don't know, bereft of stuff. But I was not bereft of stuff. I was abundant in things. And yeah, the dorm was fine. I had my key. It was like a double room, and there was double bed. There was two single beds in there, I think, extra long twin beds. So they have like a desk in there. They have like a big closet, they have AC. And I didn't have to share the room or anything. It was kind of a double room just for myself. And it was nice. It wasn't a big deal at all. I was actually right next to the bathroom. There was like two stalls in there and two showers and a bunch of sinks. And I saw people in passing, but I never had to wait for the bathroom or anything. I might just, like, say, hey, how are you doing? When you see someone you recognize in the bathroom, it's not a big deal. And so the parking, if you park, it's actually kind of a walk. A lot of Kenyan colleges is kind of a walk. And it became pretty nice to walk around. It was very hot that week and tons of sun, but the walking was cool. I got used to walking. The parking lot was pretty far, so I parked my car in front of Mather Residence Hall and then took all my stuff out, and then I went and parked. But things are pretty easy to find. They actually give you a schedule, which was really cool.

So arrival and check in was from noon to 04: 13:59

00 p.m.. On Sunday. And then there was like an optional campus tour, and I totally planned on going to that, but I didn't end up doing that because it took me a really long time to find out where I was going and get all my stuff in and unpack and unpacking felt like pretty necessary because I was like, okay, you're staying. You're really immersing yourself in this. So unpack. So I didn't end up going to the campus tour, which it probably would have been helpful, but because I'm so unused to this, you have to take care of yourself a little bit. And there were a lot of people coming in late because with service so much, but the Internet was kind of annoying, having to keep putting a of delayed flights and stuff like that, and everyone was kind of helping each other. It was a little confusing. You have to have like a key card, and you have this ID badge that you have on a lanyard that you get into the dorms, and every other building actually too. So there's a key card, and people were a little confused about that, and everyone was really cool and helping each other out. So on Sunday, there was a dinner from 530 to seven, and you sat with your table, your participants, the same people in your group, so that's what you did. So actually, that reminds me, let me tell you, this is something I kept looking for and I was confused about. So there are a bunch of there's fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. So for poetry, there was three faculty members. So three groups of poetry. There were eleven students or poets in my group, and then there's also a fellow. So there are 13 people in total. Every group has like, a lead teacher, I guess my lead teacher was Leila Chate, and then the fellow is someone that's kind of like a teacher's assistant that helps out and make gabbert was ours. So we had 13 people in my poetry group, and so there were eleven of us, eleven of us students. And so there were three groups of poetry. And for fiction, it was the same kind of deal. There were three for fiction and there were two for creative nonfiction. So that's how that worked. That's something I wasn't able to really find. And truthfully, at least I didn't mix around with the other groups at all. I basically just stayed with my group. I started recognizing people, but I really didn't we really didn't hang out whatsoever with the other groups, so that was kind of interesting. So when we first went to the dinner. The first dinner on Sunday was a little bit more formal, where they were catered and there was like a buffet. It was in this dining hall that's really nice, and it kind of looks like people kept saying, it kind of looks like somebody from Harry Potter. And so we had it like it was like a little buffet action. And then we sat with our group. There were two tables that had our group. And that's when you started getting to know people. So you started getting to know your group members a little bit, and that was nice. And then after we ate and kind of talk with the other participants in my group, then there was an open reading by the Peter Taylor fellows, and Matt Gabriel was mine. And that was from scheduled for seven to nine. But it really was only 45 minutes. And the reading was really good, just like, great readings. I don't know how many minutes they had, but it was 45 minutes. And I know that there were some fellows late just because of travel. So there's supposed to be eight fellows, and I think there was only like, six that could read because the other ones just couldn't make it in time. And that was the first night. And after the reading, I basically just went right back to the dorm. It was probably like 745, and I was like, okay, let's go back home. Let's go back and kind of just relax a little bit. And I honestly, I think other groups had kind of homework to do, but Layla didn't have anything. They just said, Be ready for tomorrow. And I just went back to the dorm and talked to my family and tried to sleep. I actually slept really well there because I didn't have to wake up with two young kids, and I just kind of watched some TV on my phone. Internet was a little bit weird. The Internet wasn't great. The passwords, I had to keep putting them in. It was kind of like a problem. I had Internet, but a lot of people, like a lot of my friends, they had issues, like with service and stuff like that. I didn't have issues password in and just kind of confusing the first few days, like, what do we do? What is this? What's the password? It only takes a few days before things kind of get seem a little bit more normal. Okay, so the second day, the first real day. So breakfast and then again they give you like a schedule and something else. I didn't know who my teacher was going to be, so that was something I kept wondering about, because people got usually who they asked for, because I hadn't put any specific faculty member. I was wondering, will I find out when I get there? What's the deal? So the workshop was June 12, and June 7 is when Leila messaged the group and told us kind of what we were doing, introduced herself. We had, like, a Google Doc. We put poems in our favorite poems, like our favorite poems in a Google Doc. And she gave us a syllabus and some poems that we are going to read and work from. So just kind of giving us a rundown of how this was going to work, which was really nice. So that was June 7. It's when I found out who my faculty member was, and June 12 is when we were going, so I did find out beforehand. So the first real day breakfast was from 730 to 815. And I kept wondering about the food. The food was really good, actually. The food was very good. I had no complaints at all. And they fed you breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so I could not complain. And there was actually a lot of other places to get food. There's, like a coffee shop, and there was a little market that had a ton of stuff, and there was like a bookstore, so there was a lot of places to get snacks. But yeah. So 730 to 815 was breakfast on Monday, and I found some familiar faces, and some of my group members asked me to eat with them, which was really, really cool of them. So I felt at ease pretty much right away.

And then so 830 to 10: 21:40

00 A.m. Were the workshops. There are different classrooms, and they give you the classroom, like name and building, and they'll tell you what faculty member has what building and room. So that was 830 to ten. And that's when I met our group, all of our group, and we got to know each other a little bit there. That was from 830 to ten. And then there's a break from like, ten to 1030. And then from 1030 to twelve is the end of workshop. So from 830 to twelve, with like, a half hour break in between. And what we ended up doing was reading. I think we read our poems out loud that we had chosen for the Google Doc, like our favorite poems. And then we did two generative exercises that were really cool and just kind of got to know each other a little bit. That first day was really nice. So then afterwards, from twelve, you would go to lunch at some Pierce Hall, where you also got breakfast and dinner. And again, very good food, totally fine. And then pretty much from one to 530, that's what they call free time. And that's generally when I would write. I would write. Or you would maybe hang out with some people. It just kind of just depends. I think if you didn't write during the free time, it would probably be pretty hard, unless you could get something done for the next day, because you're supposed to write a poem like every night to workshop the next day. At least that's how it works with our group. So you would have to come with a poem and you had a list of prompts that you could work from or not. You were not supposed to. At least with Leila's group, you weren't supposed to bring anything that you had already written. This is all supposed to be kind of generative. So we were starting from the same place. So that was when you would typically write. Dinner was like from 530 to 630 and there's readings scheduled every night. So for Monday, the open readings started at seven, like right after dinner. And the instructors were reading then. And I think it lasted probably lasted the 2 hours. I think some people went over a little bit, but yeah, it was pretty much from seven to probably about seven to nine. About 2 hours of readings by the instructors. And then the author there was right after the reading by the instructors, there was an author reception and book signing at the Kenyan college bookstore after that. I really wanted to go to that, but I was very tired.

Used to go in asleep at like 08: 24:37

00 and it was an exciting day. So I ended up not going to the bookstore for the author signing. I think they had like alcohol there and just like kind of hanging out. It was pretty packed, so I did not go to it. I just kind of went home and tried to write some more and just relax a little bit. So that's what I did. And actually that Monday I was asleep and I went to sleep. So I went to bed around 1030 after just kind of like winding down and the reading had ended around nine. And at 1130 I woke up to the light going off in the room and it flickered and I was like, okay, that's weird. And then it just turned off. The lights turned off and stayed off and I wasn't sure if my room was like I had a kind of nightlight situation going on. I wasn't sure if maybe there was like a timer or something on the light, but then I heard it was storming so bad I saw lightning like I have never seen before in my life. And turns out there was a tornado. So the lights turned off 1130 and stayed off. I was really grateful to be in the dorm at that time because I wouldn't have known what was going on if I was in an apartment by myself. So that was actually really nice. I went out and looked around and people were just like, there's a tornado. So we went downstairs and kind of hit around for a little bit. I wasn't sure exactly what's going on, but just walking around and just seeing what was happening and yes. So I just went to sleep. I went back to sleep and hoped that the light would come back on. But no, the storm was just really bad. You could see it. I had a huge window, a really big window in my dorm and it was so dark and pretty hot, so I just went to sleep and that was Monday night. So I woke up on Tuesday and the power was still out. I took a cold shower because there was no hot water. It was a pretty strange so this is now Tuesday and we obviously had gotten here on Sunday, so we had Monday being like a normal day. So Tuesday breakfast was supposed to be from seven to 815, but they didn't have any power anywhere. And the dining hall was only serving cold breakfast, which was fine, but there was no coffee and that was kind of a problem for me a little bit. So actually because I had a car, I drove me and a few friends to get Dunkin Donuts in Mount Vernon, which was like within five minutes or ten minutes away. Kenyan review actually ended up getting like coffee and putting it outside for people and stuff. So they ended up bringing coffee. So people did have that. So our workshop was supposed to be at 830 to twelve again, so we were communicating through email and that day, so workshops was supposed to be from start at 830, but we ended up delaying it until ten. We were hoping the power would come on and no, I had not. So we ended up meeting Leila at her apartments that were pretty nice and we just did our workshop there and just kind of read our poems out loud and just like critiqued what we could. The printing, you were supposed to print your stuff, but we just uploaded it to our Google document that we shared and that ended up being fine. So we like did workshop for a little bit and then we ate lunch at twelve. Again, they had like cold food, it wasn't bad or anything, but then we ended up doing instead of ending at 1230, we ended up doing we workshop from like ten to twelve and then we came back for 2 hours after lunch and that's how it went. So we had free time probably from like two to four. And really that at that time we were just trying to find places to charge our things. And the library had, they put the library on a janitor and so that was fine. A lot of the buildings you couldn't get into because you needed key card access, so that was a problem. Like our dorms, you had to keep the doors open with like a trash can or else you wouldn't be able to get in. So that just added some stuff. Obviously not Kenyan reviews or Kenyan college's fault whatsoever. It's just kind of a random tornado that just happened to strike during our time there. I'm sorry, on Tuesday. So dinner was at five. Again, no food. They didn't give them a generator, but they made it work. They made like tacos or something, which was pretty good. And then there was readings from Tuesday on. There were readings by participants, and they pretty much just gave you a list of there was a list of scheduled readings and they kind of placed you automatically. They put you as reading on a certain day. I don't know how they figured it out, but they just did. And so people were scheduled to read that Tuesday like participants. It would start at seven to nine, and you would read for two minutes or three minutes or whatever for whatever you wrote. I ended up not going to any of the participant readings from seven to nine just because I just felt like I needed that time to myself or to hang out with people. And it was maybe a little bit too much for me when I was already feeling a little bit confined by a schedule. So I just took that just to write, just because from one to four free time, often I couldn't get as much done. And again, you had to write a poem every night. I'm a slow writer, so that was definitely an exercise for me. But it was good to kind of break me out of like, I can write. So actually, at this point, Tuesday night, the power was still out and we were in the library charging our things. And during the reading, can you interview saying if you want to go home? They weren't given a time for when the power would be back on. They were telling people, like, listen, it's hot, it's going to be really hot. There's no hot water. The food situation is we don't have we can't cook, obviously, so if you want a refund, then that's what you'll have to do and that's totally fine. They were very cool about that, and we'll help you get back home and stuff. So I thought Tuesday night, instead of thinking like, okay, yeah, I'm going to have a great week, I was thinking Tuesday night that I'm okay, I guess I'm leaving. Because I wasn't really excited about the idea of doing that week with no power being it Tuesday and you stayed until Saturday, but luckily we were all in the library and talking about what we were going to do.

And at 09: 32:52

00 p.m.. The lights turned on and everyone was really excited by that. And so most places the lights turned on, but the dining hall stayed off until like Saturday morning. So we didn't end up having hot food from the dining hall, but they made it work with getting us like boxed lunches. And you could ended up you were able to get food from other places in that little area. The little Kenyan college campus has restaurants and it has a bookstore and a market. It has like a gas station in there. So. There was like plenty that was walkable to Kenyan college. So that was fine. I can imagine that not being fine. I did have money to buy food again, there's really not much that they could do, obviously. It was just like kind of an act of nature. So, yeah, the readings on Tuesday were from seven to nine. The power came back on and then Wednesday it was kind of back to normal. Breakfast from seven to 815, then workshop from like eight to twelve. And you are able to have, at least with us, I'm pretty sure everyone has a 30 minutes meeting with your faculty member. So on Wednesday I was able to have, after workshop just like a 30 minutes meeting with Leila and just talk about really whatever, but she gave me a lot of people to read. That kind of a similar vibe to me, which might help with things I'm interested in. So that was nice just to get to know her a little bit better. And then after lunch, which is at noon, you have free time, again one to four. Then at 330 on Wednesday it was like an optional meet and greet with Kenny reviews editor. And so I didn't do that, but that was something people did.

The dinner was like five to 630, then 07: 34:54

00 were readings. And I think I was scheduled on Wednesday to read, but I actually like to read usually, but I was feeling really discombobulated and I decided not to read and I was just trying to cope however I could. And how I was coping was kind of just not reading or going to the readings. I just needed a little bit more alone time than maybe other people did, I think. And I ended up writing a collaborative poem with another workshop member, which I've always wanted to do and never got to. So we went back to her, one of the North Apartments, and we wrote a poem together. And it was like a lot of fun, so a lot of cool opportunities for just meeting people. And I think that's what I liked most about it was meeting other writers that kind of like got it. And that was my favorite part. So on Thursday we got an email in the morning that said someone had coveted and they had isolated like the day before. But it wasn't in my group. And seriously, I really didn't hang out with any other writing groups. I really just hung out with the other eleven people in the group with me. And I saw them eating, I saw them walking around, but otherwise I really did not talk to anyone else. So I knew that no one had coveted in my group. And as far as I know, only one person got it left isolated. And I was a little worried about it because I'm going home. I would have really hated to have gotten coveted. I wore mass, like the whole time, but still everyone was supposed to be vaccinated and boosted, but traveling, that's how it is. And I wore a mass throughout the whole experience, but it would have been really hard for me to get cobbt while I was there and then not be able to see my kids when I got back. So a little bit nervous on Thursday when they sent that email. So yeah, Thursday kind of went the same way. It was kind of back to normal. People were hanging out. Like I got to eat dinner with some other people in my group, which was really cool. The group itself was we wrote a poem every night and we workshopped it and the poems that people are coming up with, it was just so impressive. And it was like my group in particular was really interested in forms and messing around with forms. So it was exciting, very supportive. It was nice to get to know these people and just get feedback on this generative work. Because basically everyone came with nothing, with their own interests, obviously, but you got to know their style, you got to know them a little bit more by Thursday. And Friday was the last real day. So Friday was pretty much the same kind of deal. Breakfast seven to 815, workshop from like 830 to twelve. And then the last reading was actually from four to 530. It wasn't like usually it had been seven to nine the other days, but the readings were earlier on Friday because there was a farewell dinner at 630 and it was catered by somewhere outside of Kenyan College because at this point we still had no electricity in the dining hall and they actually had to shut down because it was a health violation. But it was like I felt the people working at Kenyan College were just really, really great. They were honestly, they did their best. Everyone was super nice. I have no complaints about that at all. So they were working with no electricity. So our farewell dinner was outside. We had tables up and it was kind of like a buffet that they got catered from somewhere else and we hung out for 4 hours outside and people hung out late into the night often. And there was alcohol you could buy there's like a little bar. So if you're interested in that, they definitely had that. I ended up usually just hanging out with other people or going back to my room. Definitely not as social as other people were and you definitely have the option for that. But yeah, we all hung out and again, I hung out with the group, my participant group. I saw the other groups with each other, but never really like in passing I would see them. So we sat outside on picnic tables and we just talked and we had a lot of inside jokes at this point and it was our last night. Our farewell dinner was at 630 and we hung out for maybe like 4 hours and I went back and I packed up my stuff and just kind of got ready to go home. And we were actually supposed to write a poem that night. Even on Friday night we wrote another poem and the next day, Saturday, it was like breakfast as usual. Workshop. We only had workshop from 830 to ten instead of 830 to twelve. So we did some generative stuff. We did something called An Exquisite Corpse where you write a line and pass it around and so you would only see the line of someone before you would so you basically wrote a collaborative poem together but you didn't know how it's going to turn out, the in. So that's what we did. We read a poem out loud one time, said goodbye. It was bittersweet. I was happy to be going home, but it was sad that I potentially wouldn't see many of these people again. Though we do have a group chat and we're mostly all on social media and I've talked to a lot of people after that and things. And we have something called the Grind where people write a poem every day for a month on this email chain and then it's like every other month you do that. So there are opportunities to stay connected. So that was really nice. At ten I got in my car, I checked out, get my dorm key back and I drove home. But so check out was from like ten to three. That was Saturday. So that was the whole kind of deal. It was exhausting in some ways and invigorating in others. Just being around other riders was something that I really haven't had much experience with, especially in this like intense setting and with the power being off in a tornado. It kind of had us bonded a little bit more, but it was disruptive a little bit. So I wish it hadn't happened. But we did the best we could. And I'm glad that I stayed because I definitely struggled with having a schedule because I'm actually someone that doesn't do I don't know, I kind of rebel against schedules a little bit. But I got to meet really cool people. I got a bunch of good poems out of it and I can't believe it has already happened. But the thing that I loved most about it was meeting the other group members, the other members in my group in forming relationships with them. And we're working on a few of us separately or working on projects with each other, staying in touch. But yeah, so I had a good experience. I definitely recommend going. The application to apply is free. It's actually been a almost a month now since I've been back and I'm a little weird but it's just now kind of taking me to feel like I'm truly back to normal. But again, that's just me. A lot of I've had a lot of motivation when I first got back, though. Like, a ton of motivation. And I met really cool people. I had a good time, I got away, I had a little vacation, and a lot of cool experiences that I definitely won't forget. So if you are interested, Kenya and Views Writing workshop over the summer was a pretty cool experience. And if you're interested in a generative workshop, you should definitely check it out. At least apply, because it is free, so there's nothing stopping you. It was a super quick. There was nothing to fill out. Besides, here is five poems and done so super simple. They made it easy. So, yeah, that's my experience. I hope you found that helpful, because, again, I didn't find any of this information anywhere, and I was looking for a blog post or whatever, but this is my extensive experience. If you have questions, you can always reach out to me on Twitter, through my website, my email, and I'd be happy to share more experiences, but that's kind of the gist. That concludes this week of two. Let's quit. If you like what you heard and you want to hear more, be sure to subscribe right the podcast and share with your friends. As always, I'm your host, Terry Lynn Davis and Will.