Cooper Street Workshop: Writing Ethically about Others

Cooper Street Workshop: Writing Ethically about Others examines the responsibilities involved in writing about the people who shape our lives, including supportive figures as well as those who have caused neglect or abuse. Participants will consider questions of permission, privacy, changing names, and the relationship between fairness, honesty, and narrative truth.

Led by poet and prose writer Peter E. Murphy, the in-person workshop combines readings, freewriting, craft discussions, and a generative writing prompt.

When: Saturday, November 14, 2026

Showtimes: 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.

Tickets: $60 or $30 General; $10 for Camden city residents and Rutgers-Camden students

Venue: Rutgers-Camden Writers House, 305 Cooper Street, Camden, NJ 08081

Run time: Three hours

Instructor: Peter E. Murphy is a Wales-born, New York City–raised author of fourteen books and chapbooks of poetry and prose. His work includes *The Buzzing of the Blue Guitar* (2026), *You Too Were Once on Fire* (2025), and *A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption* (2024). His writing has appeared in *The Michigan Quarterly Review*, *The North American Review*, *Poetry Wales*, *Rattle*, *The Sun*, and other publications. He is a six-time fellow of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and founded Murphy Writing of Stockton University in Atlantic City.

Format: This is an in-person workshop.

Contact: Sienna Zeilinger at writers@camden.rutgers.edu