From First Drafts to Book Deals: A Querying Agents Power-Class
Saturday, February 1 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Justine Payton & Kennedy Cole
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Let’s be honest: querying is one of the hardest things that writers do, and oftentimes one of the most disappointing. It’s hard to get an agent—really hard, actually. But they are the “gatekeepers” of the literary world, essential for most publishing avenues, and while it’s challenging, it’s not impossible. Knowing this, “From Draft to Deal” is designed to give you the best chance of querying successfully.
While many querying workshops focus solely on the query letter—which is undeniably important—they miss out on the other essential part of the querying process: the agents. In this workshop, you will learn the components of a successful query letter as well as how to approach the querying process strategically and with the greatest chance of finding the best agent for you. We will discuss how best to approach searching for agents and the benefits of different types of agents (new or established, boutique agency or well-known mega-agency, etc.), how to plan your querying in rounds, and how to develop and customize your query letter.
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Your instructors—Justine Payton and Kennedy Cole—are agented writers in nonfiction and fiction respectively, and will share about their personal querying journeys and experiences in finding an agent. The workshop will include ample time for Q&A, and all participants will be provided with resources and templates to support their querying process.
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Justine Payton is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington where she is a recipient of the Philip Gerard Graduate Fellowship and the Bernice Kert Fellowship in Creative Writing. She has been published or has work forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review,Terrain.org, Isele Magazine, The Masters Review, andothers. She is currently the managing editor of ONLY POEMS, an editor for Ecotone, a guest editor for The Masters Review and CRAFT, and an editorial intern with Tin House. She is currently at work on her memoir.
Kennedy Cole is an agented writer and a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a BFA in creative writing and a Certificate in Publishing. She works as an Editorial Assistant with ONLY POEMS, and previously studied as an intern with History Through Fiction, a practicum student with Lookout Books, and the Managing Editor of Atlantis: A Creative Magazine. This spring, she expects to intern with both Blair Publisher and The Outpost Foundation. Her writing is published in Second Story Journal, Oakland Arts Review, and Carolina Muse. The publisher for her horror novel, THERE USED TO BE PEOPLE, will be announced in 2025.
Writing Class & Labor in Poetry
Saturday, February 22 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Halee Kirkwood
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Issues of class and labor affect every poet, regardless of where one lies on the socio-economic spectrum. In this class, we will examine class and labor as generative subjects particularly suited to speak back to power. How can poetry imagine new, anti-capitalist networks of mutual exchange? Where does the lyric live in your 9-5?
We will also discuss and share strategies for “stealing” time from employers, incorporating our creative practice into the dullest of jobs.
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Prompts and discussions will be sprinkled throughout the session, and everyone is encouraged to participate at the pace they desire. Come to this class ready to write, laugh, commiserate, and build community!
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Halee Kirkwood is a poet, teaching artist, and bookseller living in Minneapolis, MN. Kirkwood is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and has received fellowships and grants from In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poetry), The Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series program, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. The winner of the 2022 James Welch Prize, published with Poetry Northwest, Kirkwood has work published or forthcoming in Poetry Magazine, December Magazine, Ecotone Magazine, The Florida Review, Gulf Coast Journal, Water~Stone Review, Poem-A-Day, and others. Kirkwood earned their MFA in poetry from Hamline University. They are a direct descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.
Secrets of the Major Arcana:
A Poet’s Guide to Tarot
Perfect your intuitive writing practice by using tarot as a source of inspiration and creativity
Saturday, March 1 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Samantha Weisberg
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What did Sylvia Plath, T.S. Elliot, and W.B. Yeats all have in common? They used the tarot deck to write some of their most famous poetry.
The tarot deck has been a source of inspiration and creativity for centuries. In this two-hour class, each participant will learn the 22 cards of the Major Arcana and follow along with The Fool’s Journey. The Fool (card zero) begins their journey into the unknown. Along their adventure, they meet many different characters, each having individual symbols and meanings. The Fool explores uncharted territory, learns forbidden secrets, passes and fails tests, and finally, completes the cycle by balancing matter and spirit. -
How does this relate to poetry?
The class will begin with a brief overview of the history of tarot. We will then explore the symbols and meanings behind each card of the Major Arcana. We will end with several poetry prompts where you will create a poem inspired by the characters of the tarot deck. -
Samantha Weisberg is a poet and professor of writing and literature living in Salem, MA. As the founder of Divine Discourse Learning, she teaches virtual classes on mythology, nature writing, witchcraft, and the magical arts. Samantha has been studying and reading tarot cards for over 30 years and is delighted to bring both the craft of writing and magic together.
The Confessional Poem
Saturday, March 22 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Nicole Tallman
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What makes a poem “confessional”? In this exploratory, generative workshop, we’ll read, discuss, and practice writing poems that bend and blend the lines between diary and poem. We’ll read poems aloud together by living poets who may or may not consider themselves “confessional,” including Diane Seuss, Alex Dimitrov, Jericho Brown, Richie Hofmann, and Victoria Chang. Please come prepared to read, write, and share space actively with this community.
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Participants can expect to draft at least two new poems and receive feedback from the group on one of those poems as part of the workshop experience.
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Nicole Tallman is a poet, writer, and editor. Born and raised in Michigan, she lives in Miami and serves as the official Poetry Ambassador for Miami-Dade County, Editor of Redacted Books, and Poetry and Interviews Editor for The Blue Mountain Review and South Florida Poetry Journal. She is the author four collections: Julie, or Sylvia (Thirty West Publishing), FERSACE (ELJ Editions), and Poems for the People and Something Kindred (The Southern Collective Experience (SCE) Press). She is also the creator and host of ELJ Editions/Redacted Books' Be Well Reading Series and the Lunchtime Poetry & Jazz Series at Miami-Dade County's Main Library. Find her on social media @natallman.
Divination, Tarot & Poetry
Saturday, April 19 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Sophia Terazawa
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Calling all witches, oracles, earth angels, and dreamers! In this workshop, we will write through grounded practices of somatic rituals to access the divine parts of ourselves in creative writing. Open to all levels, from beginners to published authors. The only requirement is a deep wonder for the unknown. We'll read tarot cards and contemporary poems alongside each other to activate generative links between intuiting signs and language. To sharpen intuition through symbols. No dream goes unturned. Take a deep breath and follow the echoes of your spirit.
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Please bring: A journal or notebook, your favorite pen/pencil, a tarot or oracle deck if you have one (though if you don’t, that’s totally okay!) , and any meaningful objects you'd like to incorporate into our space (crystals, photos, trinkets, etc.).
Wear comfortable clothing that allows you to move and breathe freely. Most importantly, bring your curiosity and openness to exploring the mysteries that lie between the worlds of poetry and prophecy. This workshop offers a gentle but powerful container for accessing your inner wisdom through the twin practices of divination and creative expression
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Sophia Terazawa is a poet and performance artist working with ghosts. Author of three collections: Winter Phoenix (Deep Vellum, 2021), Anon (Deep Vellum, 2023), and the forthcoming Oracular Maladies, a finalist for the 2023 Noemi Press Book Award. Two chapbooks: I AM NOT A WAR (Essay Press, 2016) and Correspondent Medley (Factory Hollow Press, 2019), winner of the 2018 Tomaž Šalamun Prize. Currently teaches poetry and hybrid forms at Virginia Tech as Visiting Assistant Professor. Tetra Nova, a debut novel, is forthcoming with A Strange Object in 2025. Sophia's favorite color is purple.
The Erotic Poem
Saturday, May 17 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Maya C. Popa
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Who ever desires what is not gone? No one. The Greeks were clear on this. They invented eros to express it.” Drawing on Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet, we will explore the various facets of eros, looking to the Ancient Greeks for clues as to why desire is so bittersweet. We will close read and discuss a selection of poems by Maxine Kumin, Derek Walcott, Louise Glück, Robert Hass, and others before writing and sharing our own poems of eros in the second hour.
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This workshop creates a supportive space for vulnerability and artistic risk-taking, while maintaining respect for each participant's comfort level. Some familiarity with Carson's text is helpful but not required; excerpts will be provided. Come prepared to read deeply, discuss openly, and write boldly!
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Maya C. Popa is the author of Wound is the Origin of Wonder (Norton) and American Faith (Sarabande). Her newsletter, Poetry Today, is one of Substack’s bestselling literature publications. The poetry reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, she teaches at NYU and runs Conscious Writers Collective, a year-round online literary platform and community for dedicated writers.
Write Poems that Get Published
Saturday, June 7 @ 12 pm EST
2.5-Hour Seminar with ONLY POEMS Editors, Shannan Mann & Karan Kapoor
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Poetry isn’t about publishing. It’s about our bleeding and beating hearts. Right..right!??? Well, that’s true. We’re not cynical over here at ONLY POEMS. But also, many poets do want to see their poems in print or published online (or both!) accessible and available to the whole wide world (such a big world). And those poets might find it hard, sometimes, to fully find the resources they need to know what kind of poems actually get published and how they can fine-tune their own submissions to maximize their chances of acceptance at whatever literary magazines they are targeting.
Let’s face it, usually editors don’t have the best track record of giving you any kind of a solid idea about this. They’ll say things like, “we invite poets to lay before us a small galaxy”. Like, excuse me — grade-school science project much? That’s why, in this workshop, Shannan and Karan will demystify the process of writing poems specifically with an eye towards publication today.
Between the two of us, we have published in over 60 literary magazines ranging from the bigwigs liks AGNI, Rattle, Poet Lore, Colorado Review, Cincinnati Review, a whole lot of other reviews, all the way to small-and-might mags.
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We’ll read and discuss contemporary poetry, recent contest winners, read from some prominent lit mags as well as up and coming ones. Furthermore, we’ll discuss current challenges in placing poetry in the contemporary lit mag environment.
Please bring along recent submissions you’ve made to mags or new poems you’ve written. Also, have a list of dream mags you’d like to publish in someday (soon!).
Let’s buckle in poets. We’re taking off to Submit-ville.
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Shannan Mann is the Founding Editor of ONLY POEMS. Her recent work appears in Best New Poets (2024). She has been awarded or placed for the Palette Love & Eros Prize, Rattle Poetry Prize, Auburn Witness Prize, Foster Poetry Prize, among others. Her poems appear in Poetry Daily, Black Warrior Review, Missouri Review, Poet Lore, Gulf Coast, The Literary Review of Canada, EPOCH, december, & elsewhere. She is the Poet Laureate’s pick for Exile. Her essays appear in Tolka Journal and Going Down Swinging; they have been awarded the Alta Lind Cook Prize and the Irene Adler Essay Prize. She also translates Sanskrit poetry.
Karan Kapoor is the Editor-in-Chief of ONLY POEMS. Their recent work appears in Best New Poets (2024). A finalist for the Felix Pollak Prize & Charles B. Wheeler Prize book prizes and Diode, Tusculum Review, and Iron Horse Literary Review chapbook prizes, their poems have appeared in Best New Poets, AGNI, Shenandoah, Colorado Review, Cincinnati Review, North American Review, and elsewhere, fiction in JOYLAND and the other side of hope, and translations in The Offing and The Los Angeles Review. They’re currently on the editorial board of Alice James Books.
The Surreal Prose Poem
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This workshop will consist of close readings in surreal prose poetry, group discussion, class time responding to generative prompts and one-on-one feedback from the instructor via email. Participants can expect to gain understanding on what makes surreal prose poetry stand out in contemporary literature as well as discovering how it is different from poetry or general prose poetry. We will read surreal prose poets like Shivani Mehta, James Tate, Ray Gonzalez, Marosa di Giorgio, to name a few. The instructor will also respond to questions in this workshop on literary magazines, submissions, rejections, inspiration, craft, etc.
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You'll receive a digital packet of selected readings and prompts one week before class, which you're encouraged to review beforehand, though we'll also discuss them together. Feel free to bring along any surreal prose poems that inspire you. Most importantly, come with an open mind ready to embrace the strange and unexpected.
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Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024) The Parachutist (Sundress Publications, 2025) and Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (Red Hen Press, 2025). He has been published in The Yale Review, The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, The Iowa Review, Huizache, Poets.org, The Southern Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He has taught creative writing at the University of California at Riverside and online for Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshops, and The Writer's Center. He has been Poet in Residence at the Carolyn Moore Writers House with Portland Community College. Currently, he is the Visiting Writer in Residence at the University of Tennessee.
Everything You Need to Kick Ass On Your MFA Application!
Saturday, September 20 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Seminar with ONLY POEMS Editors Shannan Mann & Justine Payton
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There are hundreds of MFA programs out there, and sometimes it feels like more crop up every freakin’ day (okay, every year). Between funding, genre, faculty, eligibility, location, and everything else that goes into choosing your next move in life, figuring out the path to MFA applications can be tough and sometimes downright annoying. We know, we’ve been there—all of us editors at ONLY POEMS.
This seminar will cover all you need to know about the MFA application process, breaking down the how-tos and know-hows of:
Curating a list of top 10 programs best for you
Compiling and editing your portfolio
Brainstorming and developing your statement of purpose
Sourcing your letters of recommendation
Understanding funding before, during, and after the MFA
Finding relevant resources to help you make good writing career choices (connected to and beyond the MFA)
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Please note that while there will be a Q&A afterward, we will not be able to offer highly personalized feedback or application support. We will be offering individual MFA Application Packages for this.
Shannan has professionally helped several students get into their MFA programs of choice. Justine is currently in the UNCW MFA program with two prestigious scholarships (she also had offers from three other excellent programs).
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Shannan Mann is the Founding Editor of ONLY POEMS. Her recent work appears in Best New Poets (2024). She has been awarded or placed for the Palette Love & Eros Prize, Rattle Poetry Prize, Auburn Witness Prize, Foster Poetry Prize, among others. Her poems appear in Poetry Daily, Black Warrior Review, Missouri Review, Poet Lore, Gulf Coast, The Literary Review of Canada, EPOCH, december, & elsewhere. She is the Poet Laureate’s pick for Exile. Her essays appear in Tolka Journal and Going Down Swinging; they have been awarded the Alta Lind Cook Prize and the Irene Adler Essay Prize. She also translates Sanskrit poetry.
Justine Payton is the Managing Editor for ONLY POEMS. She is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington where she is a recipient of the Philip Gerard Graduate Fellowship and the Bernice Kert Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her writing is published or forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review, Isele Magazine, The Masters Review, The Keeping Room, and others. She is currently an editor for Ecotone Magazine, an editorial intern with Tin House, and a guest editor for The Masters Review and CRAFT. An avid hiker and ecofeminist, Justine has traveled and worked across four continents.
The Contemporary Love Poem
Saturday, October 18 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Chen Chen
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Are you nervous to write love poetry because you think it’s going to sound cheesy and sentimental? Or are you enthusiastic about writing it but unsure how to make it fresh and exciting? In this generative class we’ll discuss and practice a range of approaches to the love poem—or the poem that talks about love. Such a poem doesn’t have to be about falling in or being in love. And a love poem can also be a political poem.
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We’ll read work by Jessica Abughattas, Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, and others, as models for how we might experiment with and love the love poem anew. Participants can expect to draft at least three new pieces.
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Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022) and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (2017), both published by BOA Editions. His latest chapbook is Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023). His honors include the National Book Award longlist, the Thom Gunn Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and United States Artists. He lives in Rochester, NY and teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.
Testimonials for Previous Workshops
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The workshop was off the charts for me. I felt so uplifted during and afterwards, still do. I didn’t think I was capable of feeling /seeing more love about /in things than I already did, but I see it was possible, what a gift. Chen Chen made very minute count, so inspiring and personable.
Tara Mesalik MacMahon
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The MFA workshop was excellent! Shannan and Justine were welcoming and knowledgeable. I left the workshop with a clear sense of how to revise my application materials to make them stronger and more dynamic. Woohoo!
Kelly
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Enlightening! Karan & Shannan are super generous with their knowledge and I'm beyond thankful they are not gatekeeping these essential tips for writers who do want to get published.
Anonymous Attendee
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Jose's workshop exceeded my expectations. Right after finishing, I felt inspired to write another prose poem, which was the best outcome for me. While he encouraged us to let our imaginations flow, he was super practical too, giving us examples of selected prose poems to dissect and discuss. His prompts got me writing immediately in a new form.
Holly Marihugh
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I so admire how you conducted the workshop. Your command of and love for the material was inspiring. And, as evidence of how much I learned, I have more questions now than before!
Richard Weistheimer
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Shannan and Justine were incredible! They provide a comprehensive breakdown of the MFA application components unlike anywhere else I've found on the internet. I feel 100% more confident as I work on my Statements of Purpose and compiling my portfolio. I would highly recommend this workshop for anyone now or in the future who is considering applying for an MFA.
Anonymous Attendee
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The workshop with Karan was inspiring & a bridge for community. The care & passion he had is felt through the way they lead and teach the classes. I would take another workshop again.
Mateo Perez Lara
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ONLY POEMS has a stellar reputation. Every aspect of it is deeply considered and informed, so it's no surprise that an ONLY POEMS-run workshop was just as packed with value, variety and depth. Many organizations preach accessibility, but Karan really embodies an openness that makes engaging with the workshop effortless. I walked away feeling inspired and empowered!
FM Papaz