Report by Lea Steinmetz, M.A. student cultural anthropology
During the summer semester 2024, the writer Rita Bullwinkel held the Picador guest professorship at the University of Leipzig. Bullwinkel, author of Headshot und Belly Up, won the 2022 Whiting Award, is an editor for McSweeney’s Quarterly, and assistant professor for Englisch at the University of San Francisco.
On July 18 und 19, 2024, Rita Bullwinkel visited the Q+ program at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz for a reading and a workshop. This event, part of a cooperation between the Picador professorship and Q+, offered students a great opportunity to learn from an experienced writer.
The event began on Thrursday evening with a reading from Bullwinkel‘s novel Headshot. Bullwinkel read a chapter, which gave insight into her style and character development. During the following Q&A, the audience learned more about the writing process of Headshot.
On Friday morning, a writing workshop for Q+ students took place. In preparation, the participants had read the short story „Slatland“ by Rebecca Lee and discussed it during a preparatory session. The workshop focused on creative play with language. As an exercise, students invented new definitions for a word and then employed them in a short story. This exercise emphasized how flexible language is in creating new meanings and stories. The resulting short stories were as diverse as surprising and showed the potential working of with language.
Rita Bullwinkel supported the students with much empathy and a profound knowledge of all technical aspects of writing.
Without question, the workshop enriched our understanding of writing and creativity. On behalf of all participants, I’d like to thank the Q+ team for organizing this event, and Rita Bullwinkel for teaching an inspirational and educational workshop.