This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House
Writing Through the Eye: Turning Images into Language
Some of literature’s most powerful writing begins with an image—a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, a still frame—that a writer refuses to simply describe. Instead, they step inside it, argue with it, rewrite its ending, or use it as a doorway into something entirely their own. From the ancient Greeks to contemporary poets and essayists, writers have long turned visual art into literary invention.
Across three genres—poetry, flash fiction, and the short essay—we’ll explore how contemporary writers transform a single image into elegy, argument, memoir, and story. Most importantly, we’ll spend time looking closely at works of art that speak to us and using them as prompts for original writing. Rather than treating images as subjects to describe, we’ll approach them as collaborators: something to question, inhabit, resist, and reimagine. By the end of the workshop, each participant will leave with working drafts in at least two genres and a richer understanding of what becomes possible when image meets language.
Gerardo Cardenas is a writer, editor, translator, cultural promoter, journalist, literary agent, and currently a doctoral candidate in Creative Writing in Spanish at the University of Houston. He is the author of seven books of poetry, short fiction, and theater. His work has appeared in anthologies in several countries. He is also a regular columnist for Literal Magazine.
