Generative & Community-Building Poetry Workshop (with Carolyn Zaikowski) - ONLINE
This group is for both beginner and established poets who are craving a space to just be…poets! Each week, we'll generate new poems in class, guided by versatile prompts. Rather than intensive craft study, formal workshopping, and revision, we'll engage with encouraging on-the-spot feedback on brand new pieces. You may come to class with poems or ideas you’re already working on, too. If you are a poet looking for guided writing time, gentle accountability from an experienced instructor and fellow like-minded poets, support around writing/life balance, and the opportunity for community, this group is for you! By the end of the course, you’ll have garnered a sense of peer support, set intentions for your writing life, and written at least seven new drafts of poems for you to take with you. All levels. Limited to 10 writers.
Workshopping / Feedback: This class will involve informal, on-the-spot feedback for poems generated in class, as opposed to intensive formal workshopping. Writers will have a chance to share and discuss their poems with the large group at least three times for approx. 10 minutes each. Writers will also have several chances to share in small breakout groups.
Weekly Workload: At-home writing encouraged but not required; no at-home reading. (In other words, no at-home work required.)
WHEN: 8 Weeks: Tuesdays, May 2 - June 20 (6 - 8pm EST)
WHERE: Online, via Zoom video conference
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
CAROLYN ZAIKOWSKI is is the author of two hybrid novels. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared widely, in publications such as The Washington Post, The Rumpus, PANK, West Branch, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and is currently an English professor and volunteer death doula.
GOALS OF THIS WORKSHOP
- Creating a space wherein students can have time to generate new poetry and find their voice with different opportunities for exploring prompts, genres, and styles
- Fostering a space for poets to be in supportive community with like-minded peers
- Receiving gentle feedback, encouragement, and accountability from classmates and the instructor
WORKSHOP OUTLINE
Each week will broken up into writing time, plus optional, encouraging, informal on-the-spot feedback for the writing we've generated. We’ll loosely follow the topic schedule below, though they will naturally overlap. Students may bring things they're already working on and modify prompts to fit their needs.
WEEK ONE: THE SENSE WORLD
We’ll set writing goals for the class and beyond, then get lighthearted and curious about the possibility of generating poems and breaking writer's block with the senses--visuals/images, sound and music, and even optional movement.
WEEK TWO: FREEDOM AND FLOW
We’ll play with more open-ended and less fixed forms, like free verse, surrealist, and stream-of-consciousness poetry.
WEEK THREE: FORMULAS AND CONSTRAINTS
We'll explore the surprising hows and whys of using fun constraints like fixed forms or random formulas to write poetry.
WEEK FOUR: PEOPLE AND VOICES
We’ll check out the interesting world of character and persona.
WEEK FIVE: TELLING STORIES
We'll explore prompts around writing poetic narratives.
WEEK SIX: HAPPY AND SAD
We'll explore and write in interesting genres like odes (poems of celebration) and elegies (poems of mourning or sober contemplation).
WEEK SEVEN: I'M TALKING TO YOU
We'll see what happens when we create poems in the spirit of letters and direct address.
WEEK EIGHT: TO PROSE POETRY…AND BEYOND
We’ll get curious about the phenomenon of prose poetry and an exploration of poetry’s potential to challenge the concept of genre altogether, plus revisit our writing goals.
RECEIVING THE ZOOM LINK: For one-day workshops, we send out the link to attend the Zoom session 1 - 2 days before the event, via email. For multi-week workshops, you should receive info and the link about 3 - 5 days before. Please mark your calendars when you first register and look for our emails. If you don't see the email in your inbox on the day before the class, please check your spam and junk mail folders (and search all folders) for an email from joy@pioneervalleywriters.org before contacting us. We have found that very often our emails end up in those folders. This is based on your own email settings, and you can prevent this by adding our email as a contact.
ONLINE SESSIONS happen remotely, via Zoom video conference. All you need is a laptop, computer, or phone with functioning audio and a webcam. Those who RSVP receive directions and a link to "join" the session via email (please see above note about receiving the Zoom link). All online instructors will log on to the video conference a few minutes before the start of the session, so please plan to log on early if you'd like assistance! We'll do everything in our power to help you get comfortable with the Zoom format, though we are not able to offer technical assistance beyond basic Zoom orientation.
REFUND & CREDIT POLICIES AT PVWW
Because of non-refundable fees that we, PVWW, must pay for every transaction that happens, we are not able to give full refunds to those who register then withdraw from a workshop or class. If you withdraw from a workshop ten days or more before the start of the class: You'll receive full credit toward another workshop or class of equal value OR a refund minus 10%. If you withdraw from a workshop nine days before the start of the class up until 48 hours before: You'll receive full credit toward another class OR a refund minus 30%. If you withdraw from a workshop less than 48 hours before the start of a class or after the class has begun: We are not able to offer you credit toward another class or a partial refund, unless in the case of a medical emergency. If we have to cancel a class for any reason, you will receive a full refund, or if you choose, a credit in the amount of your payment, to be used for any future PVWW class. Anyone who does not specify whether they would like a refund or a credit for a cancelled class within 3 months will automatically be refunded. Please contact Joy (joy@pioneervalleywriters.org) for all matters concerning credit and refunds.