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In this workshop, we’ll consider the role of “influence” in learning by example and cultivating a sense of experiment. The goal is to develop your voice and embed a personal logic in your sentences. We will examine writing across genres to understand how sentences move, and write riffs that resemble the originals. The heart of the technique of moving beyond the riff, and inventing your own style, is listening. We’ll recite the sentences we create and push beyond the defining limits of what you think we can do. You'll emerge with “new” sentences that embrace influence as a starting point for deeper reflections and the nourishing force for developing style that resembles none other—because it is the product of your mind, and your particular talents
Diane Mehta was born in Frankfurt, grew up in Bombay and New Jersey, studied in Boston, and now makes her home in New York City. She is the author of two collections of poetry: Tiny Extravaganzas (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) and Forest with Castanets (Four Way Books, 2019). Her essay collection Happier Far comes out in 2025. New and recent work is in the New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, and A Public Space. Her writing has been recognized by the Peter Heinegg Literary Award, the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, and fellowships at Civitella Ranieri, Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She was an editor at A Public Space, PEN America, and Guernica. Her latest project is a poetry cycle connected to The Divine Comedy. She is also collaborating with musicians to invent a new way of working through sound together. Photograph by David Yellen
