This class is built for the new poet, or for someone returning to poetry after some distance. Participants will have an opportunity to create new work from writing prompts and discuss different avenues into writing poetry. An overview of poetic tools, styles, and strategies will give way to the center of poetry: emotion, story, and breath. Participants will also gain an understanding of the workshop model and its alternatives, find ways to build their community of fellow creatives, and discuss how to stay self-motivated to keep writing.

Join acclaimed New York City poet Patricia Spears Jones in a master class that explores the connection of myth and spirit in the creation of poems for and about the future. Whitman in his essay, “Democratic Vistas” charged poets with sustaining a credible and expansive democracy. But his road map and the myths he relied on no longer suffice.
Take a deep dive into the poetry of Louise Gluck, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. For six weeks, we will be reading in community and writing in response together. In this generative workshop, we read Gluck’s poems aloud together for the first hour and in the second hour, we write independently. You will receive supplemental materials weekly, including a mix of writing prompts, essays, interviews, and links for further reading. In our final meeting,
we will celebrate and share our newly generated work.
In uncertain times, how have poets transformed their anxieties into art? Join Gemini Ink’s Executive Director for this generative class and explore how poets have created new spaces from which to witness the world, digest and reconsider their fears, and cultivate new sources of resilience. We will study a selection of 20th century and contemporary poets as they take on their worries. Participants will be encouraged to draft new works, and constructive feedback will be provided. We may not solve the world’s problems in a day, but we can discover writing techniques that embolden and refresh us as we continue to navigate unprecedented times.