Eating Strawberries in the Dark: the Lists of Sei Shonagon

Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing

In this generative workshop, we’ll read some of Sei Shonagon work and use her lists as a leaping off point to examine our own lives and expe

MIU MFA in Creative Writing Showcase Fall 2025

Welcome to our upcoming Fall ‘25  MIU MFA in Creative Writing Showcase, a co-collaboration with the Soul Bone℠ Literary Festival. It runs from Aug. 18 - 31. All events are online, free, and open to the public. Please join us!

Soul Bone Literary Festival Fall 2025

Welcome to our upcoming Fall ‘25 Soul Bone℠ Literary Festival, which is an MIU MFA in Creative Writing Showcase and runs from Aug. 18 - 31. All events are online, free, and open to the public. Please join us!

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is one of the greatest works of Japanese literature alongside its contemporary, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. You could call the journals of Sei Shonagon one of the earliest lyric memoirs while The Tale of Genji was the first novel ever written. It is extraordinary that, in a part of the world noted for male ascendancy, both these masterpieces should have been written by women. Sei Shonagon was born a little over a thousand years ago (965 is a likely date). She was a Court Lady and lady-in-waiting to Empress Sadako during the last decade of the tenth century. This was at the very height of the Heian culture. Her father was a provincial official but best known as a scholar and poet. Otherwise not much is known about her family, but as a lady at the court, she was highly educated in various arts and in writing. At the time, ladies at the court had elaborate hairdos that made it necessary to sleep on a wooden box to preserve their hair; this box was where personal items such as journals could be kept. This is why we now refer to Shonagon’s journals as The Pillow Book. The Pillow Book is the first of a typically Japanese form of writing, which includes some of the country’s most valued literature: zuihitsu (隨筆), or "following the brush", a form characterized by loosely connected essays, fragmented thoughts, and casual observations, which conveys a spontaneous and unfiltered style, conveying Shonagon’s personality and immediate impressions of her surroundings. The books offer a fascinating record of Court life: an anecdote here, a prescription for conduct there, a lilting roll call of names, rivers, flowers, a subtle comment on some custom, a whimsical reflection, or a formal record or observance. In this generative workshop, we’ll read some of Sei Shonagon work and use her lists as a leaping off point to examine our own lives and experiences with a fresh eye in the form of lists.Nynke Salverda Passi is the director of this MFA program and co-chair of MIU’s English dept. She was born and raised in the Netherlands. Her work has been published in CALYX, Gulf Coast, Poetry Breakfast, Life &amp; Legends, and more. Her poetry has been anthologized in Pandemic Puzzle Pieces and River of Earth &amp; Sky (Blue Light Press), Carrying the Branch (Glass Lyre Press), and Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic (River Paw Press). Together with Rustin Larson and Christine Schrum, she edited the poetry collection Leaves by Night, Flowers by Day. She was a finalist in the Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s prize of The Missouri Review in both ‘14 and ‘22.

Eating Strawberries in the Dark: the Lists of Sei Shonagon

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Eating Strawberries in the Dark: the Lists of Sei Shonagon

More events from Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing

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