Draft Chats are for writers of fiction and creative nonfiction who are dedicated to improving their craft and celebrating the shared successes of the group. Together, we meet monthly to review each other’s work, offer feedback and guidance, and encourage each other along our individual paths to publication. Less rigorous than a workshop, Draft Chats are designed for the writer who is searching for a thoughtful community of readers and/or who simply seeks encouragement to continue their journey. Participants should bring copies of work to share; designated manuscript-reading time will be followed by constructive, facilitated discussion. We welcome you!
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C.I. Aki is a poet, essayist, editor, filmmaker, and educator based in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his B.A. in Rhetoric and Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and his Masters in Theology and Philosophy at Vanderbilt Divinity School with a focus on critical theory. In 2012, Aki published his first short story, “A Withering Scar, a Thin Pin-Striped Suit, and 1,000 Judgments,” in 34th Parallel Magazine. 2014 he premiered his first short film, "The Runner," at the Capital City Black Film Festival. In 2015, he was a recipient of Vanderbilt’s Imagination Grant to carry out research in Spain for an ongoing documentary on flamenco he is producing. In 2017, Aki self-published an experiment in fiction and philosophy titled After Esther: The Red Book, an attempt to flesh out the ideas of love, desire, and difference he culminated in his master’s thesis at Vanderbilt.Aki's debut collection of poems, The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast on April Gloaming Publishing, was released in May 2021 and ranked #3 by Readers Digest’s Top 14 Black Poets to Read in 2021. His monograph, "The Freedom of Color: Harouna Ouédraogo Paints the Future Freely Black," on the artwork of Burkina Faso painter Harouna Ouédraogo, was published by The Denver Quarterly Literary Magazine in 2022. Aki currently serves as one of the poetry editors for Waxing and Waning Literary Magazine while on a sabbatical from teaching to complete a novel based on his life as a first generation Nigerian American. You can follow him on Instagram @ soul_lit_writer and signup for his newsletter forthenoones.substack.com.
"C.I.'s facilitation and pedagogy made the workshop interactive and immersive. He provided space for us to analyze and apply work, but also gave us great feedback and takeaways as we venture further into realism. Thankful for this class and its impact it will have on my storytelling."
"This was a fantastic class that taught and reviewed many of the creative writing tools and techniques I learned in high school, long, long ago. C.I. was a great teacher and the exercises were effective in demonstrating the techniques we learned."
