Check out the lineup for Black Lawrence Press virtual events!
Generative Group Writing Session
Instructor: Isaac Pickell
Date: May 3
Time: 1:00 – 3:00 PM Eastern, Virtual
Fee: $25
Join us for a generative group writing session! Come away with new material inspired by writing prompts led by Black Lawrence Press author Isaac Pickell. Participants will be given a series of prompts, each followed by time to write silently while in community with other writers. All participants will receive:
- a PDF of additional prompts for future writing
- a surprise chapbook, mailed to your address
The Poetry of Place: Physical, Liminal, and Memory
Instructor: Sunni Wilkinson
Date: May 12
Time: 8:00 – 9:30 PM Eastern, Virtual
Fee: Free
Poetry is filled with the emotional cartography of a poet’s life, often gleaned from the spaces the poet has occupied, physically and mentally. Where we spend our days, the places we turn to in our minds, ancestral lands and childhood neighborhoods haunt us and give dimension to our lives. Capturing those on the page, exploring their depths and mysteries, can unlock fascinating moments in our writing. This workshop aims to take the writer to the various verdant, strange, and unsettling places of their life and help them engage with those in fresh and surprising ways.
Jeremy Richards’ interviews with four contemporary poets sheds light on the profound ways that “place,” its limitations, and histories inform our identity.
Instructor: Megan Merchant
Dates: May 17, 24, 31 and June 7, 14, 21
Time: 5-7 pm Eastern, Virtual
Fee: $295
When revising your work, do you ever wonder if you are actually improving the poem, or simply moving things around to create something new? How do you know when to trust the advice that your community of readers offer? In this six-week workshop, we will explore a practical and replicable strategy for strengthening your poems – one rooted in identifying and understanding the “why” of the process, not just the “how”. Through close readings of contemporary texts, open discussions, and generative prompts, we will cover how to find the “wisdom” of your poem (and what that means), as well as the elements that are in-service to that “wisdom”—including well-crafted images, compression and diction, framing the lens, and shaping the poem on the page. Please bring a packet of your poems (5-10) that could benefit from revision and be prepared to write. By the end of the course, you will have expanded your understanding of how to make choices to clarify your poems and think critically about your own work.