Writing Classes & Workshops 

Writing from out of the ordinary in an exploration in peculiar poetry.

     In this workshop, we will look at poems that deal with the supernatural — poems that peer beyond the veil and utilize a supernatural element. From Poe, Keats, Lorca, and Rossetti, among others, we will explore these poems and what they say about the seen and unseen world.

     Through these works, we’ll consider how the supernatural in poetry reflects deep-seated human questions about mortality, reality, and the limits of human understanding. By reading and discussing these pieces, participants will engage with how different eras and cultures have expressed universal themes of fear, mystery, and fascination with the unknown.

     Participants will have the opportunity to ruminate and investigate poems of the paranormal, gaining insights into how these eerie elements serve as a window into humanity's beliefs and values. They will also craft their own poems with a twist of the eerie, adding to a long-standing tradition of poetic exploration that bridges the tangible and intangible aspects of human experience.

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KIARA NICOLE LETCHER is the author of Oxblood, (Agape Editions, 2024) and the chapbook Scream Queen (Orchard Street Press, 2019).

     Her work has appeared in South Dakota Review, Green Mountains Review, Plainsongs Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, Querencia Press and Mulberry Literary, among other publications. Her work is also forthcoming in Laurel Review.      She received her MFA from The University of Nebraska at Omaha and previously served as a Board Member for the Nebraska Writer’s Collective. She was the 2024 Keynote Speaker for the Nebraska Scholastic Writing Awards and a Nebraska State Poet Nominee. You can find her at her website, or on Instagram @kiaranicolebang.

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

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$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40

This generative workshop will explore the enduring influence of mythology, examining how ancient stories continue to shape our understanding of identity, power, beauty, and human nature.

     We’ll begin by looking at how classical myth informs contemporary poetry, starting with Helen of Troy, 1993, and expanding into works by poets like Rita Dove and Alice Oswald, who reimagine myth through modern lenses. These texts will serve as a springboard for discussion about how myth lives within literature, poetry, and art.

     Participants will then receive creative prompts to write their own myth-inspired poems, whether drawing from ancient sources or reinventing archetypes to reflect today’s world. No prior knowledge of mythology is required—just curiosity and a love for story.

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MARIA ZOCCOLA is a queer Southern writer and educator from Memphis, Tennessee. Her debut collection of poetry, HELEN OF TROY, 1993, came out with Scribner on January 14, 2025. She holds a BA in writing and English from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and an MA in professional writing from Falmouth University in Cornwall, England.
     Maria has worked and written for nonprofits both big and small, and from 2017-2021 managed Deep Center’s Young Author Project in Savannah, Georgia, a program embedding creative writing workshops within the Savannah–Chatham County Public School System and serving 400 young people annually.
     Maria’s fiction and poetry can be found in such venues as The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Fantasy Magazine, Kenyon Review, ZYZZYVA, Electric Literature’s The Commuter, and elsewhere. Her work has been nominated "Best Small Fictions" and "Best New Poets," has been a finalist for "Best of the Net", and has received a special mention for the Pushcart Prize.

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

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$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40

How can pop culture provide new and inventive ways to write poems, present complex truths, and provide an avenue into our deepest emotions? In this generative workshop, poet Courtney LeBlanc will provide examples that effectively, and creatively, weave pop culture into their poems.

     How does an American Girl doll represent your childhood? How does Nirvana or Taylor Swift inspire you? How does your favorite horror movie reflect your own truth or trauma? We'll read poems together, discuss them, and then Courtney will provide prompts to write your own pop culture-inspired poems. 

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COURTNEY LeBLANC is the author of the full-length collections Her Dark Everything; Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize); Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters. She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press.

     She is also the founder of the Poetry Coven, a monthly generative poetry workshop. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Find her online. 

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

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$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40

Memory (the deliberate act of remembering) is a form of willed creation. It is not an effort to find out the way it really was--that is research. The point is to dwell on the way it appeared and why it appeared in that particular way.
               -Toni Morrison

In this genre-bending workshop we will collectively and independently explore and interrogate stories, communal folklore and our archival of memories. We will lay our memories (from multiple points of view) out and jigsaw them to create first drafts of The Haibun, and The Nines poems. All class text will be provided by workshop facilitator. 
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ANASTACIA RENEÉ is a queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, playwright, former radio host, TEDX speaker, and podcaster.

     She is the author of Here In The (Middle) Of Nowhere, Side Notes From The Archivist, (v.) and Forget It. Sidenotes from the Archivist was selected as one of “NYPL Best Books of 2023,” and, The American Library Associations (RUSA) “Notable Books of 2024.”

     She is a recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award (Literary) and she was selected by NBC News as part of the list of "Queer Artist of Color Dominate 2021's Must See LGBTQ Art Shows," for (Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts, an installation at Frye Art Museum.       Renee served as Seattle Civic Poet (2017-1019) during Seattle’s inaugural year of UNESCO status. Renee has been, Hugo House Poet-in-Residence, and Jack Straw Curator. Their work has been published widely. 

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

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$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40

A quiet painting of farmers except a tiny man falls from the sky. A poem with a commercial break. The childhood memory that lands on your head on your grocery store run. Some art insists the out of place actually belongs—as if it's meant to be.   

     We'll explore such art, fill some pages, and build some creative bridges that may freshen our perspectives on the things we make and the days we live.

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DR. BRAD AARON MODLIN is The Paul and Clarice Reynolds Endowed Chair of Creative Writing and an associate professor.
     His book, Everyone at This Party Has Two Names won the Cowles Poetry Prize. His Surviving in Drought (fiction stories) won the Cupboard Contest. His poetry has been the basis for orchestral scores, a Brooklyn art exhibition, and numerous speeches, reflections, meditations, and podcasts.

     His poetry is featured in an episode of The Slowdown with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón (American Public Media & The Poetry Foundation) and the premier episode of Poetry Unbound with Pádraig Ó Tuama (On Being Studios). He has been invited to read at the American School of Paris, been commissioned for poetry by the art gallery of the University of Melbourne (Australia), and given the keynote at Philsophique Poetica’s World Poetry Conference in India.
     He coordinates the Reynolds Visiting Writers Series, bringing writers from across the nation to share with us. On the other side of the equation, he happily gives readings as the guest of other universities, recently including University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Monroe Community College in New York; Western Kentucky University; and Northern Arizona University. He likes laughing with his students.

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

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$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40

Some songs have a magical way of transporting us through time. They evoke vivid memories, stirring up feelings of nostalgia, joy, or reflection.

     In this workshop, we’ll explore the songs that have shaped us and look at how music can serve as a powerful gateway to poetry. We’ll look at the songs that connect us to our past, reliving moments of youth while discovering fresh insights in the present. Then, we’ll discuss how to transform these emotional snapshots into poems.

     Whether you’re a seasoned poet or a newcomer to writing, this workshop invites you to turn the soundtrack of your life into art. 

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MATT MASON is the former Nebraska State Poet and was the Executive Director of the Nebraska Writers Collective from 2009-2022. Through the US State Department, he has run workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus.     

     Mason is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work can be found in The New York Times, on NPR’s Morning Edition, in American Life in Poetry, and more. Mason's 5th book, Rock Stars, was released by Button Poetry in 2023.      

     Matt is based out of Omaha with his wife, the poet Sarah McKinstry-Brown, and daughters Sophia and Lucia. Find more on his website.

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

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$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40

Participants in this workshop will consider several poems born in times of struggle to carry clarity and the doggedness of hope. We’ll explore the poetry of political upheaval and war, as well as familial and personal grief; in doing so, we’ll rediscover the techniques good listeners and writers have used for centuries to create poems that help us persevere. 

     Prompts generated by the work at hand will get us writing, and poets will leave with drafts to carry onward through the dark.

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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; their second book, Recovery Commands, recently won the Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize and will be published by Ex Ophidia Press in 2025.

      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.

     Their poems can be found in recent or forthcoming issues of One Art, the Pushcart Prize 2025 Anthology, Rattle: Poets Respond, and Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to the Birds of Washington State.

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After you register, you will receive an "admission ticket" with the zoom link information on it.

​

$40 or FREE to Members

Annual Membership $40