Thursday in Residence with Catherine Lacey
Ekstasis & Enstasis

Every first Thursday of each month, from 6.30 to 7.30 pm, a writer in residence opens a window on his or her work, universe and motives, in a free form of intervention. An hour of carte blanche to share, followed by a drink.

During this Thursday in Residence, the American writer Catherine Lacey will confront the notions of ekstasis and enstasis within the creative process. Ecstatic experiences are often the subject of fiction and poetry, especially when a writer’s goal is to transport readers outside of themselves. “Ecstasy” comes from the Ancient Greek word ekstasis, which means “to stand outside oneself,” yet that escape of the self — whether achieved through aesthetic, spiritual, sexual, or other means — is paradoxically the thing that most hinders clear writing about such material. Enstasis, the unpopular opposite of ekstasis, is a tool writers have often used, after the ecstasy has passed, to stand within oneself and translate an intense lived experience into a legible text.