Writing the West at AMWA
Join us at AMWA for Writing the West, our monthly writing series combining art history, storytelling, and participants’ creative voices. To help inspire your writing, we’ll explore the Museum’s galleries, stopping to learn about specific paintings relevant to each month’s theme. After spending time with the paintings, you’ll be given a thematic writing prompt inspired by the art by Writing the West instructor Dan Manzanares. Throughout each session, you’ll have the chance to share what you wrote next to the painting that inspired you. Writing the West is open to writers of all backgrounds, genres, and skill levels, even those who’ve never written creatively before!
Participants will have the opportunity to submit their work to be included in the season’s Writing the West anthology. In April, we’ll host a Celebratory Reading where writers can invite family and friends to watch them present their work from the anthology in front of the paintings. Anthology contributors will receive a copy of the book, which will be displayed throughout AMWA’s galleries for all to enjoy.
Upcoming Sessions
2024-2025 Writing the West themes:
September – Prairie Tech
October – Iconic Animals
November – Colorful Characters
January – The Seasons of Haiku
February – From Boarding School to Jazz Club, The Navarre through the Decades
March – Western Wayfinding: No GPS, No Problem
May – Celebratory Reading
Dan Manzanares is an award-winning literary arts advocate and teacher who holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Western Colorado University. As an author and editor, he’s published community anthologies as well as a nationally recognized arts and culture community engagement toolkit. In 2021, Denver’s Mayor appointed Dan to the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, where he served as Chair. He’s a founding board member of Sidewalk Poets; an advisory board member of Rocky Mountain Reader; and co-founder of Story Quest, a creative business teaching aspiring authors how to use the power of storytelling to unlock their imaginations.
DIY Writing Prompts