Join us at the Bureau, for a free 90 minute writing workshop centering queer experiences on and around the dance floor. Hosted by writers McKenzie Wark and Jules Wernersbach. The workshop is free, however, advance registration is required.

Register for this workshop on Eventbrite.

The queer dance floor and the spaces around it are often sites of intense experiences, as well as many very ordinary moments that can sustain or frustrate us—and sometimes at the same time.

What kinds of writing can express what all of this feels like? What are the cliches to avoid? How do the unique experiences of queer life in motion call for their own modes of written expression? These are some of the questions we’ll be looking into in this workshop.

We will work with short extracts from our favorite texts as prompts, followed by timed exercises and opportunities for discussion in breakout groups, as well as among the larger group.

Both fiction and nonfiction writers are welcome, beginners and experienced. Materials will be provided, though feel free to bring your own notebook and pen, or laptop.

This workshop is hosted by the Bureau, Manhattan’s Queer Bookstore, located inside of the NYC LGBT Center in Room 210.

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McKenzie Wark is the author, among other things, of Raving (Duke University Press), Reverse Cowgirl (Semiotexte) and Love and Money, Sex and Death (Verso). She co-curates the reading series Writing on Raving and co-edited the anthology from the series, published by O/R Books. She co-edited the “Black Rave” issue of eflux journal with madison moore in 2022.

Jules Wernersbach is a writer and bookseller in Brooklyn. Their debut novel is Work to Do was published by University of Iowa Press. Their short fiction has been published in Bennington Review, Heavy Feather Review, and other journals. They are the author of Vegan Survival Guide to Austin and The Swimming Holes of Texas. Jules is co-founder of Hive Mind Books, a queer independent bookstore and coffee shop in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They have been a bookseller for a long time and also served as literary director of the Texas Book Festival.

The Bureau is Manhattan’s queer bookstore, founded in 2013, hosting a wide variety of queer literary and art events and programming.