NCWN

Cost: $250
The critic and poet William Empson once wrote, “You must rely on each particular poem to show you the way in which it is trying to be good.” In addition to helping each poem be good on its own terms, we’ll be looking to discover additional ways of being good—to open up new possibilities for all of us as readers and writers. The core of that effort will be our workshopping of each other’s poems, but I will also start each meeting with a brief discussion of a published poem that seems relevant to the subjects we're discussing in the workshop. We'll also try to develop our community with an email forum; each week, one of the participants will share a published poem he or she finds interesting, along with a few words on what he or she values in the poem. Anyone who has time and inclination can then chime in with questions, observations, favorite lines, other poems it reminds them of, etc. Hopefully we'll be able to help each other as writers well beyond the eight weeks we spend together, sharing new areas for exploration and starting conversations that will continue long after the workshop is done.