I’m excited to be teaching two workshops this fall at The Grotto.
THE ART OF CHANGE: A POETRY INCUBATOR
(10/21 &28; 11/18 & 25)
Number of sessions: 4
Meeting time: 6:30 – 9:00
Dates: Oct. 21 & 28; Nov. 18 & 25
Course fee: $260, $50 deposit
All deposits are nonrefundable.
“And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
The poems we love change us, make us braver, help us tune toward what matters most. In this course, we’ll immerse ourselves in the life of the poem. Each meeting includes generative exercises, reading, craft & process discussions, and opportunities to share work. We’ll use a variety of forms – traditional, improvised, and found. We’ll look closely at how we can cultivate time and space to help our work flourish. Our sessions will help you write a new batch of poems and/or deepen poems already underway. Prose writers also very welcome! We’ll dream up some poetry-inspired tea & provisions for each session. This workshop includes a 30-minute private conference with the instructor, (to be scheduled with the student).
WHY LOVE WHAT YOU WILL LOSE: WRITING THROUGH GRIEF
Sunday, October 12
10:00 – 4:00 [+1 hour for lunch]
Course fee: $100, $50 deposit
All deposits are nonrefundable.
Why love what you will lose? There is nothing else to love. —Louise Glück
Description: Major shifts and challenges in our lives can spark our most urgent writing. When something so deeply affects us, how do we begin to write “about” it? In our day together, we’ll explore how to find points of entry and how to work with resistance. In generative exercises we’ll practice working with particular image, detail, and dialogue, and other elements that create immediacy. We’ll cultivate a responsive circle of listening and we’ll discuss how routine and form can create stability for the unsettling process of writing in this difficult terrain. All genres welcome. Tea & snacks provided. Please bring your lunch.