The Art of Bad Poetry with Abby E. Murray

Saturdays, May 17, 2025, 10am-1:30pm CST, (includes a 30-minute lunch), via Zoom

Nonmember: $155  Member:  $130  Student: $90      

*EARN CPE’S

TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

What do we even mean when we consider a poem “good” or “bad”? Beginners aren’t the only ones who benefit from conversations that question our assumptions about poetry and the way we practice connecting with our own voices. Established poets also gain from discussing poetry’s rules and reputation, its stereotypes and possibilities. 

In this class, writers of all levels will strive to expand their understanding of the art of poetry, first by weeding out our judgments of “good” and “bad” poetry, then shaping poetry’s elusive boundaries by playing with work that challenges our notions of value and weakness. Expect laughter. Anticipate letting go of fears that limit us. Plan to write.

Students will leave this class with: 

• An awareness of how judgment applies to the “good” and bad” of poetry
• Increased sense of freedom without worrying about bad poetry
• Drafts of new written work

Abby E. Murray (they/them) is the editor of Collateral, a literary journal concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. Their first book, Hail and Farewell, won the Perugia Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, while their second book, Recovery Commands, recently won the Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Ex Ophidia Press. Abby served as the 2019-2021 poet laureate for the city of Tacoma, Washington, and currently teaches rhetoric in military strategy to Army War College fellows at the University of Washington.