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March 2017
Daytime Poetry: Making Magic
Instructor: Judy Longley Cost: $189 Members | $210 Non-members 8 Wednesdays, March 22, 2017 – May 10, 2017 | 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM Making poetry is the process of lifting everyday life into magical realms through symbol, figure and metaphor. This 8 week course will involve using the inspiration of other poet’s examples and the elements of craft to produce new visions of the world and perhaps your own life. Let the magic begin! Judy Longley of Charlottesville, Virginia, has published four…
Find out more »April 2017
Poetry of Resistance
Instructor: Annie Kim Cost: $60 Members | $65 Non-members Sunday, April 2, 2017 | 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM A poem can be an act of defiance. Poetry lets us mourn, rage, rally, love where we don’t want to, see what we’d rather miss. Poetry tells the truth in its own way. As W. H. Auden wrote: “Poetry is not concerned with telling people what to do, but with extending our knowledge of good and evil. . .” But if…
Find out more »May 2017
Pattern and Form in Poetry
Instructor: Kristen Rembold Cost: $142 Members | $158 Non-members 6 Tuesdays, 5/23/17 - 6/27/17 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM This class will be an examination of pattern and form in poetry. All poets are pattern makers. We'll read examples from literature (mainly recent examples) and set about deconstructing/constructing our own forms, too. Participants will have the opportunity to submit and workshop poems each week, and we will view those poems-in-process through the lens of pattern/exception. Even if you don't think of yourself…
Find out more »Evening Poetry
Instructor: Mark Parlette-Carino Cost: $142 Members | $158 Non-members 6 Tuesdays, 5/23/17 - 6/27/17 | 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM This workshop is open to all poets—beginners, dabblers and dedicated writers. In it, you'll have the chance to create and share new work each week. We'll use the workshop, and some discussion of published poems and writing processes, to explore different aspects of what makes poems work—the language, the images, the ideas, the rhetorical structures. Our goal is to marvel at…
Find out more »June 2017
Writing Nature
Instructor: Neil Perry Cost: $60 Members | $65 Non-members Saturday, 6/17/17 | 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM How do we use the natural world when we write poems? How does it use us? Is it possible to write a poem that is not 'nature writing' (I say no....)? This seminar will explore the ways poets can use and have used the natural world as a guide, a prompt, an antagonist and an inspiration in poems. We will take long looks at poems that…
Find out more »August 2017
Of Brevity and Bigness
Instructor:Annie Kim Cost: $60 Members | $65 Non-members Saturday, 8/5/17 | 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM Brevity is the soul of wit. But what of poetry? Working from the premise that even big poems are made up of well-tooled little parts, we'll dig into examples of both big and little poems to unpack the art of poetic brevity. We'll explore ideas for revising work with an eye toward speed and grace. While writers of all levels are welcome, this class…
Find out more »October 2017
Art of Recklessness: Surprise Yourself (Generative)
Instructor: Chet'la Sebree $25 Members | $30 Non-members Saturday, 10/7/17 | 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Feeling like a one-trick pony in your poems? Looking to get out of your comfort zone to try something new? In the first installment of this lunchtime seminar series—that uses Dean Young’s The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction as a guiding principle—we will discuss ways to surprise yourself in your writing practice using generative strategies that can act as a…
Find out more »Art of Recklessness: Surprise Others (Subversion)
Instructor: Jane Friedman $25 Members | $30 Non-members Saturday, 10/14/17 | 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM A good poem teaches a reader how to read it; however, many of these poems also subvert our expectations in meaningful and surprising ways. In the second installment of this lunchtime seminar series—that uses Dean Young’s The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction as a guiding principle—we will discuss ways in which you can both create and subvert readers’ expectations through…
Find out more »Art of Recklessness: Revision
Instructor: Chet'la Sebree $25 Members | $30 Non-members Saturday, 10/21/17 | 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Want to revise a lifeless poem? Don’t know how? In the final installment of this lunchtime seminar series—that uses Dean Young’s The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction as a guiding principle—we will look at two versions of the same poem as a way of discussing how to revise life into a well-crafted but otherwise flat poem. Chet’la Sebree, a mid-Atlantic…
Find out more »November 2017
Daytime Poetry Workshop (1 spot left!)
Instructor: Kristen Rembold $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays, 9/26/17 - 11/14/17 | 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM In this poetry class, we will learn more about the elements that make up the body of a poem through means of reading assignments, class discussion, and lectures. We will spend an equal amount of time in workshop mode, examining our poems with particular attention paid to the body, form, and pattern of the poem. Kristen Staby Rembold’s most recent book is a…
Find out more »March 2018
Daytime Poetry: Pattern and Form
Instructor: Kristen Rembold $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays, 1/16/18 - 3/6/18 | 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM All poems, including free verse, rely on formal elements. Join us as we workshop our poems with an eye to form, pattern, and other elements of poetry. We will examine and "workshop" examples from literature as well. About the Instructor: Kristen Staby Rembold’s fourth book of poetry, Music Lesson, is forthcoming from FutureCycle Press. Her poetry chapbook Leaf and Tendril was published…
Find out more »Evening Poetry: Alterations – Draft to Poem
Instructor: John Most $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays, 1/16/18 - 3/6/18 | 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM “Revision involves bringing into alignment with the world of that poem what that poem needs to be.” --Audre Lorde Each week we will discuss different ways to alter, or revise, our poems: from abstraction to clarity, from metaphor to description. We will also look at different drafts of well-known poems, looking at why particular poets altered or revised a poem. Or didn’t.…
Find out more »April 2018
Make It New: Beyond Retelling in Poetry
Instructor: Chet'la Sebree $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Sunday, 4/22/18 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM Modernist Ezra Pound is largely credited for encouraging writers to try new things in response to inspiration. He sought recreation as opposed to regurgitation. In this seminar, we will discuss poems that not just retell cultural and personal histories but bring new light to them. We'll explore how poets bring fresh perspectives to Greek mythology, venerated figures, and current and historical events as well as…
Find out more »May 2018
Daytime Poetry: Crafting Your Best Poem – Voice, Image & Form
Instructor: Sara Robinson $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays, 4/4/18 - 5/22/18 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM Using the basic mechanics of poetry as a refresher, participants will write, revise and assess their writing styles. We will focus on voice, images, form, movement, line, and words and study works of notable contemporary poets, using them as keys to creating our best craftsmanship. Students will also use writing journals as paths to creation and prompts and exercises. As we work toward poetry composition…
Find out more »Evening Poetry: Dreamers and Surgeons
Instructor: Annie Kim $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Thursdays, 4/5/18 - 5/24/18 | 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM Making poems requires both a deep surrender to the unknown and true surgical precision. In our workshop we’ll keep these poles in mind as we examine an essential craft element each week, read from a range of published poems, and dive into each other’s work for the majority of our time. Imagery, line breaks, combining narrative with lyric moments, opening/closing strategies—these and a…
Find out more »June 2018
Revisiting the Sonnet
Instructor: Neil Perry $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/9/18 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM The sonnet is the room in the house of poetry that just won't go away. It is unassuming - a small bedroom perhaps - yet essential. Why do we still write sonnets? How should you write one? What do they mean? This seminar will explore these questions by thinking on the history of the sonnet, the contemporary variety of sonnets, the use of the sonnet…
Find out more »Not Just On Any Walden Pond: Taking Nature into New Poetry Images – Seminar is Full!
Instructor: Sara Robinson $80 Members | $87 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/16/18 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM We will focus in this retreat on how nature can inspire our creativity and craftsmanship. What can nature teach us about the “senses” in our writing? Writers will be encouraged to bring their journals, writing notebooks, cameras, to take in surroundings and craft poetry as spontaneous response to surroundings. Workshop and critique techniques will be used to encourage and support one another’s writings. Exercises…
Find out more »July 2018
(HE)ART Speaks: The Mindful Connection Between Poetry and Art
Instructors: Lisa Ellison and Jum Jirapan **FREE for WriterHouse Members | $15 for Nonmembers Tuesday, 7/31/18 | 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Experience art as meditation through this hands-on seminar that explores the connection between poetry and art. Make your own artwork using the simple painting technique Jum Jirapan used to create her WriterHouse exhibit. This event will include prompts, a conversation with artist Jum Jirapan, meditations facilitated by Lisa Ellison, and opportunities to share. Snacks will be provided. We'll provide the…
Find out more »September 2018
Evening Poetry: The Collagist (Class is Full!)
Instructor: John Most $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays, 9/18/18 - 11/6/18 | 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM In this class, which is open to all poets, we will spend most of our time writing and workshopping new poems. In addition to writing new poems, each week we will read example poems that, in the broadest sense of the word, collage words, forms, sources, genres, styles, allusions. . . Collage is powered by surprise, so our guiding question will be:…
Find out more »Advanced Poetry: Packing a Punch in Your Poetic Endgame
Instructor: Mirabella Mitchell $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Wednesdays, 9/19/18 - 11/7/18 | 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM Prerequisite: Students must have taken at least two poetry classes. Renowned poet Gregory Orr argues that there are six very different kinds of endings for poems. In this class, we’ll read, explore, and discuss an array of poems ranging from the 16th to 21st centuries, and we’ll use these six diverse “species” of endings as our path into them. However, our topics…
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