In this one-day workshop, we will read poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, Adam Zagajewski, Frank O’Hara, Roger Reeves, January Gil O’Neil, and others that demonstrate how praise can be a tool for understanding and transcending even the hardest truths.  We will explore how these poets craft praise songs that acknowledge life’s sorrows and losses. We will then write our poems of recovery and resilience. 

This two-session virtual workshop will focus on reading and discussing stories of body horror that affect us and engage with stories of illness, trauma, loss, power, monstrousness, and reclamation. We will also discuss how these stories can inspire our own. In this generative workshop, we will engage with multiple activities inviting us to write and share our own body horror stories.