BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//GayOut//Event Export//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:394643@gayout.com DTSTAMP:20261106T002745Z DTSTART:20261124T183000Z DTEND:20261124T203000Z SUMMARY:Writing Exile DESCRIPTION:RSVP TO THIS EVENT HERE\\nA weekly gathering to write togethe r around a rotating theme\\, such as body\\, identity\\, homecoming\\, li minal spaces\\, crossing\\, disability\\, bureaucracy\\, ICE\\, and the r ise of autocracy. Under the broader umbrella of immigration\\, the list i s endless\\, and the current political moment keeps handing us fresh mate rial to process.\\nEach week\\, I’\\;ll bring in a guest writer or a rtist for a conversation alongside the writing session. Our guests are ei ther in exile themselves or work closely with queer immigrant artists and themes of immigration.\\nThe group centers immigrant\\, asylum-seeker\\, and refugee experience\\, and anyone drawn to writing about being queer and immigrant\\, or adjacent themes\\, is welcome. That openness matters to me. It can help bridge the distance immigrant writers often feel from those who hold a passport or a green card.\\nThe series will culminate in a public reading at the Bureau.\\nCommunity agreements\\nConfidentiality : What’\\;s shared in the room stays in the room\\, unless a partici pant chooses to share it further\\, at the final reading or elsewhere.\\n No AI: AI tools are not permitted during the workshop. You’\\;re wel come to bring a laptop to type your stories\\, though I strongly encourag e handwriting during sessions.\\nSession structure\\nGuest conversation ( 30 min). An informal Q&\\;A between the guest and me on the week’ \\;s theme and their experience of writing queer exile\\, open to audienc e discussion.\\nDiscussion. We name shared questions and emerging themes from the conversation and share short passages of our own writing on the theme.\\nFree write and workshop. Three prompts\\, each followed by small -group discussion.\\nWrap-up. We share our experiences of writing and rea d sections aloud.\\nAfter each session\\, participants receive a reading list and a writing prompt to bring back the following week.\\nAcross the five weeks\\, we’\\;ll work through craft (character\\, dialogue\\, place\\, sensory detail) using excerpts from published writers and from t he group’\\;s own submitted work. The goal is to get every participa nt as close as possible to a finished draft of their nonfiction exile sto ry by the end of the workshop.\\nThis week’s theme is: writing bureaucr acy\\, immigration realities and writing through trauma-induced block.\\n Nastya (Anastasia) Dzutstsati is a writer\\, educator\\, and researcher b ased in New York City. Their work examines autocracy and LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S. and Russia. They are a writer in residence at Art Omi (Fall\\, 2026). They were also a PEN America playwright fellow and developed a pla y on power dynamics between immigrants and Americans with support from Ne w York Theatre Workshop and National Queer Theater. The play was staged a t PEN World Voices 2026 and is forthcoming in PEN’\\;s anthology in Fall 2026. \\nNastya has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University\\, Cooper Union\\, and Stony Brook University\\, and has spoken as a paneli st at NYU\\, The New School\\, and Bard College. They hold an MA in Human Rights and the Arts from Bard College and a BA in Journalism from the Un iversity of Kent. In 2023\\, they delivered the TEDx talk “\\;Writin g Within Exile”\\; at Bard College\\, and they were a Threatened Sch olar Integration Initiative Fellow with the Open Society University Netwo rk (2022–2024).\\nIn Moscow\\, Nastya worked as a journalist for Curren t Time (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). Their writing has appeared in T he Gay &\\; Lesbian Review\\, Marie Claire\\, Cosmopolitan\\, Grazia\\ , and elsewhere.\\nThe Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is Man hattan’s only queer bookstore\\, located on the second floor of the LGB T Center. We’re open Tuesday-Sunday from 1-7pm and accessible by the 6t h Ave 1 2 3 L trains and 8th Ave A C E trains. Our cafe\\, The Bureau Caf e\\, is open Tuesday-Sunday from 9am-7pm.\\nhttps://www.gayout.com/usa-ca nada/united-states/new-york/events/writing-exile-2026-11-24 LOCATION:Bureau of General Services-Queer Division URL:https://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-states/new-york/events/writing-exile-2026-11-24 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR