Climb Inside Other Minds: Exploring Persona Poetry with Leticia Urieta
2026-03-28 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Write Persona Poetry for Fresh Perspective

Saturday, March 28, 10am-2pm CT, in-person at Gemini Ink
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Educ/Mil $70
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Are you a writer searching for a new perspective? Persona poems–written in another person’s voice or from their point of view–offer a way to slip into someone else’s skin, converse with those who have passed, or see the world through another’s eyes.
In this one-day generative workshop, participants will learn about persona, call-and-response dialogue, epistolary techniques, and how to apply these to our own writing. We’ll then create our own narrative poems that shift perspective, get into someone else’s head, and/or engage with ancestors, historical figures, etc. Students will be invited to share work and receive feedback.
Participants are encouraged to bring their lunch. This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Workshop participants will leave with the following:

Techniques for shifting into someone else’s perspective
At least one persona poem
Feedback on your poems and ideas on where to submit your work

Leticia Urieta (she/her) is Tejana writer from Austin, TX. Leticia is a graduate of Agnes Scott College with a BA in English/Creative Writing and holds an MFA in Fiction writing from Texas State University. She works as a teaching artist for adults and youth and offers a variety of workshops for all ages.
Leticia writes across several genres, including poetry, comics, speculative fiction and horror. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lumina, The Offing, Kweli Journal, Medium, Electric Lit, Uncharted Magazine and others. Her chapbook, The Monster was published in 2018 from LibroMobile Press. Her hybrid collection, Las Criaturas, from FlowerSong Press was a finalist for the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction 2022 from the Texas Institute of Letters and a finalist for the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Short Story Collections. Leticia’s dark fiction collection, The Remedy is the Disease, is forthcoming in 2026 from Undertaker Books. Leticia loves her husband and dogs who are terrible work distractions. Despite all that, she is fueled by sushi, horror movies, and pug videos on Instagram.

Telling a Story of Your Life: A Personal Essay Workshop with Kendra Allen
2026-04-02 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Write your truth

Thursday(s) April 2, 9, 16 & 23 6:30-8:30pm CT, via Zoom
Nonmember: $200; Member: $170; Student/Educ/Mil $140
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

In the span of every life are countless moments, stories, and revelations. When writing a personal narrative, how do writers go about selecting what will most speak their truth and resonate with readers?
In this four-week course, we’ll demystify the personal narrative process by figuring out the difference between a snapshot and a story. First-time writers may assume they have to include their entire lives in one piece, which can make getting started on a personal essay confusing and overwhelming. This workshop will help you pinpoint storylines within yourself by leaning into your unique style and tone. Through games, prompts, and other exercises, we’ll focus on generating work every week.
This course is open to adult writers of all skill levels.
Workshop participants will leave with the following:
A starting point for a personal essay
An understanding of how to differentiate between a situation and a story
Techniques for nurturing your voice on the page
Ideas on how to create prompts for yourself to generate material

An award-winning essayist and poet, Kendra Allen was born and raised in Dallas, TX. She loves laughing, leaving, and writing. Some of her other work can be found in The Paris Review, High Times, The Rumpus, and more. She’s the author of the New York Times lauded poetry collection The Collection Plate (Harper Collins, 2022) and essay collection When You Learn the Alphabet, which won the 2018 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction. Fruit Punch (Ecco, 2022), her memoir, is out now and receiving praise from all corners. Jaquira Díaz, author of Ordinary Girls, states: “A stunning and original memoir about Black girlhood and coming of age. Allen is both storyteller and poet, observing the world with curiosity and humor. Fruit Punch is simultaneously brilliant cultural commentary and an intimate portrayal of family and community, and it will stay with me for a long, long time.”

In Short Order: Finding Form in Flash Fiction with Kathryn Kulpa
2026-04-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Flash fiction is for readers on the go

Monday(s), April 6, 13, 20 & 27, 6:30pm – 8:30pm CT online via Zoom
Nonmember: $200; Member $170; Student/Educ/Mil: $140
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Flash fiction–very short stories with the distilled power of poetry–may be the ideal form for busy writers and readers. These stories take minutes to read, but linger in the mind long after the last sentence.
This four-session workshop will introduce you to a range of flash fiction forms–from the shortest pieces, such as 50-word dribbles and 100-word drabbles, to microfiction (400 words or fewer), flash fiction (1,000 words or fewer), and short-short stories (under 2,000 words). We’ll learn how to apply poetic techniques like anaphora, metaphor, lists, and short sections to create vivid, memorable stories that prove less is more.
We’ll read example stories, write our own, and talk about our work, with the goal of shaping drafts for publication. By the end of the workshop, you will have at least two completed flash stories and ideas for where to publish your work.
This workshop will help students:

Experiment with different forms and structures
Learn how constraint and compression can, paradoxically, free your inner writer
Write at least two complete flash stories
Gather ideas on where to publish flash fiction works

Kathryn Kulpa was born in Rhode Island, the smallest state, and her favorite kind of stories to write are also small: flash and microfiction. She is an editor at Cleaver magazine and has stories in Flash Frog, Florida Review, Fractured Lit, Ghost Parachute, HAD, Monkeybicycle, Smokelong Quarterly, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and other journals. Her work has been chosen for Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and the Wigleaf longlist. Kathryn won the Gold Line Press chapbook competition for her collection A Map of Lost Places (Gold Line Press). She is also the author of For Every Tower a Princess (Porkbelly Press) and Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted (New Rivers Press).

Poetry’s Cinematic Propositions with Elena Karina Byrne
2026-04-28 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Explore parallels between poetry and film

Tuesday(s), April 28 & May 5, 12, 19, 26, 6:30-8:30pm CT, via Zoom
Nonmember: $250; Member: $215; Student/Educ/Mil: $175
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Film has the power to evoke striking images, capture history, and transport us to alternate realities. Poetry does the same. But what happens when poets borrow elements from film?
Over five-weeks, we will explore the intersections between cinema and poetry, and imagine the poet as director, cinematographer, actor, screenwriter, stage designer, documentarian, and editor–all at once. Through an eclectic mix of poems, essays, and screenplay excerpts, we’ll uncover how poetry and film share the key elements of discovery, the transformative tools of language and image, and the uniting of the speaker’s inner and outer worlds. This class will strengthen your writing skills, help you to see your work with new eyes, and deepen your revision process.
This intermediate level workshop is for poets 18+
Workshop participants will leave with the following:

An understanding of how film elements can strengthen poetry
Strategies for using cinematic elements in poetry
Fresh revision techniques

Former 12-year Regional Director of the Poetry Society of America, Elena Karina Byrne worked as a Contributing Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, a final judge for PEN’s “Best of the West” award, one of the final judges for the Kate and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards in Poetry from 2016-2018, and one of three 2018-2019 Georgia Circuit visiting poets. Elena also served as a co-judge for the 2022 international Laurel Prize, the annual award for the best collection of environmental poetry.
Elena Karina Byrne holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from Antioch University. She has curated programs for the GRI at the J. Paul Getty Center, MOCA, the Craft Contemporary, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, The Clark Library, and USC’s Doheny Memorial Library, among others. Currently, she is a private manuscript editor, freelance lecturer, 29-year Programming Consultant and Poetry Stage Manager for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, as well as Poetry Programs Director for the historic Ruskin Art Club. Elena Karina Byrne is a Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry recipient, and author of five collections of poetry including If This Makes You Nervous (Omnidawn), No, Don’t (What Books Press), Squander (Omnidawn), MASQUE (Tupelo Press), and The Flammable Bird (Zoo Press/Tupelo Press). Her poems, reviews, essays, and interviews can be found in POETRY, The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Poetry International, Poetry Daily, Ploughshares, BOMB, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, New American Writing, Verse Daily, LARB (LA Review of Books), APR (American Poetry Review), Plume Anthologies, Oxford Review of Books, Kyoto Journal, TriQuarterly, The Yale Review, The Adroit Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Braving the Body anthology, Republic of Apples Democracy of Oranges: New Eco-Poetry from China and the United States, Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies, Poetry Goes to the Movies, The Eloquent Poem:128 Contemporary Poems and Their Making, and elsewhere.

Launch Your Substack with Jennifer Nguyen
2026-05-02 10:00 - 13:00 | Online via Zoom
Amplify your online presence and connect with your audience

Saturday, May 2, 10am-1pm CT via Zoom
Nonmember: $75; Member: $65; Student: $53
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Blogs are out, substacks are in! Learn to build your own and get your writing to your audience ASAP.
In this one day workshop you will learn how to use Substack, a popular online writing platform, to find your audience and amplify your voice. If you are looking to develop a marketing strategy for your long-term writing goals, this class is for you. Participants will reflect on where they are as writers, where they want to go, and how they want to use a Substack to get there. We will examine other online platforms but focus on how to use Substack and its tools to build an audience, maximize visibility, and cultivate your own unique flavor. This course is designed for practicing writers 18+, who want to connect with new readers.
Workshop participants will leave with the following:

A deep dive into Substack
Short-term and long-term writing goals
An assessment of your audience
Increased confidence in your authentic voice

Jennifer Thuy Vi Nguyen is a writer currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a creative nonfiction writer who writes about assimilation, belonging, and power. Her work has been supported by Tin House, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, Macondo, Vermont Studio Center, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Lambda Literary Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, where she received the Emerge Editorial Fellowship and edited Emerge, the retreat’s anthology.
Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a “notable” selection in The Best American Essays 2024, and has appeared in Longreads, The Offing, Foglifter, the Ponder Review, and New Rivers Press as the winner of the American Fiction Award. She writes humorist pieces in “Thursday Letters with Jen” via Substack. Along with writing, Nguyen is currently the director of postsecondary success at the Stupski Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation that will spend down its assets and sunset by 2029. Her writing and speaking are premised on how foundations should let go of power and control—in ego, reporting, evaluation, and telling funded organizations what to do—and have appeared in Designing Tomorrow, Break Fake Rules, EdSource, and The Center for Effective Philanthropy. In addition, with the support of the Stupski Foundation, she is the author the quarterly column, “Philanthropy Confidential” – a project of candid and humorous answers to anonymously submitted questions from the philanthropic field. Her professional experiences inspired her book-length critique of the field, Letter of Inquiry – a project selected to be a part of the 2025 Changemakers Authors Cohort, which supports the development of books that could have an enduring narrative impact.
