Workshops Archive
Power Titling for Poets
Instructor: Karyna McGlynn
A good title can be the difference between publication and the slush pile—between the front window of the bookstore and the dusty back shelves. It’s the opening note of your book and the first line of your poem. So why give it any less thought than the rest? In this workshop, we’ll look at examples of strong, memorable titles, why they work, and what we can learn from them. I’ll offer strategies and generative frameworks for titling poems as practice, and discuss what makes these titles pop for contemporary audiences. Ever tried to write a title after a poem was finished and drawn a complete blank? Of course you have. You’re human. Not only will we address this issue, we’ll also discuss titling *as prompt*, how starting with a title can lead to some delicious generating. A segment of the class will be devoted to a round-table discussion of your own anonymously submitted titles of poems and books, where we’ll assess the merits and drawbacks of each.
July 13, 2024
Write Poems that Get Published
Instructors: Shannan Mann, Karan Kapoor
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-mighty mags.
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. To round it off, we’ll also generate some of the freshest, coolest, most acceptance-est poetry out there right now. So, buckle in poets. We’re taking off to Submit-ville.
June 30, 2024 & July 20, 2024
Divination, Tarot & Poetry
Instructor: Sophia Terazawa
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.
June 8, 2024
The Perfect Prose Poem
Instructor: Karan Kapoor
Learn to write, revise, and publish your prose poems. In this workshop, we will go through the brief history of the prose poem and discuss successful prose poets like Robert Hass, Luke Kennard, Ray Gonzáles, C.D. Wright, Carolyn Forché, Richard Garcia, Lydia Davis, Russell Edson, Claudia Rankine, and Mary Ruefle. We will also close-read a couple of prose poems together. After that, we will engage in some generative exercises to develop our own prose poem during the workshop. There will be an opportunity for live instructor and peer feedback.
May 11, 2024 & May 18, 2024
The Eco-Poetry Workshop
Instructor: Matty Layne Glasgow
In this 90-minute generative workshop, we’ll consider how we as human artists engage with and situate ourselves within the more-than-human world through poetics. In what ways can we as artists dissolve the binary between the human and more-than-human? We’ll close-read and discuss a few contemporary poems which take various approaches in their ecological engagement. These discussions will lead into two generative writing exercises, culminating with the opportunity for participants to share and commune with one another’s work in an intentional and supportive setting.
April 7, 2024