Unless otherwise noted, all workshops are held via Zoom.
Please email jswilliams1307@gmail.com to register.
Accepted forms of payment: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or mailed check.
This workshop will delve deeply into a number of Merwin’s poems, including his themes, style, and perspective, focusing on his nature, aging, and compassionate poems, via active group discussion and writing prompts and some writing time to help you engage more directly with and be inspired by his work…putting his lessons into practice. And the class includes a 34-page handout!
Sijo is a Korean poetic form consisting of forty-four to forty-six syllables, traditionally in a three-line poem with fourteen to sixteen syllables per line, or as a six-line poem with varying syllables per line, with each line featuring a pause, similar to a caesura, near the middle. This intimate workshop will include lessons, analysis of a variety of sijo poems, in-class writing activities, and (optional) sharing drafts with the class.
Similar to the goals of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), the aims of this self-paced class is to write 30 poems in 30 days. However, you might write one poem a day, or several poems in a day, and then give yourself a break. It’s totally up to you!
Whether you’re writing to a specific theme, assembling a group of poems for a chapbook, or you want to try writing a longer poetic sequence, this workshop is meant to support you with generative prompts and experiences to get you creating plenty of new work.
What This Workshop Provides:
· 30 Days’ Worth of Writing Prompts
· A professional critique of all 30 poems as you send them, be it one each day or all 30 at the end of the month
· Ability to ask John writing questions any time during the month
To keep you consistently inspired, writing, and honing your craft, and to keep you engaged in a passionate poetic community, this month-long workshop series is aimed at helping you see your poems in a new light, broadening your vision, and improving your mechanics. Topics likely to arise include syntax, lineation, sound and rhythm, tone and mood, use of imagery, balancing the personal and universal, and other rhetorical strategies.
We will meet in a small, intimate, trusting group in which we can be honest and supportive of each other’s work. Each poet will compose one new poem each week, and we will start each session by reading and lightly critiquing it as a group. You will also receive intensive written feedback on each poem from me prior to the session. We will then move on to mini-lessons, fresh prompts, and hopefully some writing time!
Each week you will receive an inspiring seed idea designed to trigger the creation of a poem, share ideas about the process of writing poetry, workshop one of your poems, and receive feedback from the workshop group. Then, at the end of the week, I will give you a detailed response to your poem – with praise for the places where your poem is evocative and powerful, along with suggestions for revision where the poem has not reached its full potential. My goal is to give you a deeper understanding of poetry, a deeper love of language, and a stronger mastery of the techniques which make a modern poem work. I look forward to being a catalyst to help you take the next step in your writing!
This workshop will delve deeply into a number of Stafford’s poems, including his themes, style, and perspective, focusing on his nature, political, and compassionate poems, via active group discussion and writing prompts and some writing time to help you engage more directly with and be inspired by his work…putting his lessons into practice. And the class includes a 30-page handout!
** By request/popular demand, this is a Part 2 of Stafford’s work. So, all new poems, new activities, and some reading from his book on his poetry writing process.**
To keep you consistently inspired, writing, and honing your craft, and to keep you engaged in a passionate poetic community, this month-long workshop series is aimed at helping you see your poems in a new light, broadening your vision, and improving your mechanics. Topics likely to arise include syntax, lineation, sound and rhythm, tone and mood, use of imagery, balancing the personal and universal, and other rhetorical strategies.
We will meet in a small, intimate, trusting group in which we can be honest and supportive of each other’s work. Each poet will compose one new poem each week, and we will start each session by reading and lightly critiquing it as a group. You will also receive intensive written feedback on each poem from me prior to the session. We will then move on to mini-lessons, fresh prompts, and hopefully some writing time!
Each week you will receive an inspiring seed idea designed to trigger the creation of a poem, share ideas about the process of writing poetry, workshop one of your poems, and receive feedback from the workshop group. Then, at the end of the week, I will give you a detailed response to your poem – with praise for the places where your poem is evocative and powerful, along with suggestions for revision where the poem has not reached its full potential. My goal is to give you a deeper understanding of poetry, a deeper love of language, and a stronger mastery of the techniques which make a modern poem work. I look forward to being a catalyst to help you take the next step in your writing!
Using a rhetorical device known as ekphrasis, the poet engages with a painting, drawing, sculpture, or other form of visual art in hopes of expanding on its meaning. Poetry about music and dance might also be considered a type of ekphrastic writing.
In this workshop, we will analyze a variety of poems with unique approaches to exploring O’Keeffe’s work, including the abstract, surreal, and the deeply human. There will also be a variety of writing activities throughout and an opportunity to share your work with our small, safe group of wonderful poets! And the workshop includes a robust 50-page workbook.