Expanding the Self Through Art

With Holly Mason Badra

On October 12 and 13, 2026

On October 12 and 13, Holly Mason Badra will lead a writing workshop on Ekphrastic work, which muses off of or is in conversation with visual art. This workshop is open to any genre of writing. The writing may explore any topics or themes that feel important to you and the workshop will involve close-reading and unpacking examples that illustrate the various directions this type of writing can take.
 

Holly Mason Badra is a Kurdish American writer living in Northern Virginia. She is the curatorial editor of Sleeping in the Courtyard: Contemporary Kurdish Writers in Diaspora (The University of Arkansas Press). Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Mizna, The Markaz Review, Poet Lore, Everything is Political, MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, Meridian, The Arkansas International, The Rumpus, CALYX, Asymptote, Koukash Review, Rowayat, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. She is the associate director of Women and Gender Studies at George Mason University. She reads for Poetry Daily and serves as the board vice president of Henar Press. 

Registration will be closed on October 3rd, and the workshop will be conducted in English. Capacity is limited to ten participants and applying early is recommended. The application form can be found through this link. 

Please submit the following:

• A work sample of two pages. 

• A cover letter not more than two 2 pages that includes a bio, brief artist’s statement, and your writing goals for the workshop.