More info to come.

THE CONTEMPORARY LOVE POEM

Are you nervous to write love poetry because you think it’s going to sound cheesy and sentimental? Or are you enthusiastic about writing it but unsure how to make it fresh and exciting? In this generative class we’ll discuss and practice a range of approaches to the love poem—or the poem that talks about love. Such a poem doesn’t have to be about falling in or being in love. And a love poem can also be a political poem. We’ll read work by Jessica Abughattas, Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, and others, as models for how we might experiment with and love the love poem anew. Participants can expect to draft at least three new pieces.

Hosted by Joy Sullivan.

Rewriting the Family

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So goes the famous opening of Anna Karenina—was Tolstoy right? How might we imagine otherwise? Or define family differently? Or queer it? What is family in the 21st century? What does it mean to you? In this generative session, we’ll explore these and other complicated questions by discussing brief readings and attempting a few writing prompts. We’ll consider blood family alongside chosen family, familial memory and grief alongside the dream of new familial constellations. Poems by F. Douglas Brown, Wo Chan, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Victoria Chang, and others will inform our conversations and experiments.  

Please come to this session with a favorite (or least favorite!) family photograph, where family could mean chosen family or include animals or however you define it. We’ll use this photograph as a portal into writing.

Finding (Or Refining) Our Resonant Sources

In this session we’ll take Linda Gregg’s notion of “resonant sources” as our guide to thinking deeply about what fuels our writing. We’ll look at an excerpt from Gregg’s fabulous essay “The Art of Finding” along with moving poems by Nikki Giovanni, Michael Burkard, Victoria Chang, and others. We’ll discuss what it means to go under what our writing seems to be about, to investigate those sources of our art that may not show up on the surface but nonetheless shine through. We’ll also do some generative writing around this idea, and ask what happens when a resonant source changes or when we realize we’ve been looking at it upside down this whole time. Short readings and prompts will be provided via Google doc. Please come prepared to dream. 

More info about Conscious Writers Collective.

At Archivist Books in Rochester, NY. More info.

Cindy Juyoung Ok and I will read for about 20 minutes each, and then there will be an open mic. Please contact the Brookline Public Library for a Zoom link: brooklinepoetry@minlib.net.

Official description: the Brookline Poetry Series is an independent monthly venue housed at the Brookline Public Library Main Branch.  In recent years we have hosted poets such as Alan Shapiro,  Stephanie Burt, Vievee Francis, Daisy Fried, Major Jackson, Dorianne Laux, Matthew Olzmann, Patricia Smith, and Jane Wong.

We meet the third Sunday of the month, September through May, from 2-4 p.m.  Readings in September-November and March-May are in-person; readings in December-February are on Zoom. The afternoon starts with our invited readers.  An open mike closes the event, where some of the best up-and-coming lyric and narrative poets in Boston present their work. We draw a regular audience of 30-50 people, and poets often tell us that we have one of the most attentive audiences they have encountered.  It's a serious but warm venue, with a strong sense of commitment to the work and to the community we've built. The Boston Globe has called us "the best literary open mike in Boston." The Series directors are Ann Killough, Christine Tierney, Aimée Sands, and Susan Jo Russell.

THE CONTEMPORARY LOVE POEM

Are you nervous to write love poetry because you think it’s going to sound cheesy and sentimental? Or are you enthusiastic about writing it but unsure how to make it fresh and exciting? In this generative class we’ll discuss and practice a range of approaches to the love poem—or the poem that talks about love. Such a poem doesn’t have to be about falling in or being in love. And a love poem can also be a political poem. We’ll read work by Jessica Abughattas, Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, and others, as models for how we might experiment with and love the love poem anew. Participants can expect to draft at least three new pieces.

More info + enroll.

Update: this workshop is sold out!

Reading + a short generative workshop for Gather, an online writing group in Canada hosted by Maria Giesbrecht.

“My Life Has Gotten So Busy: A Workshop on Titles.” More info to come.

Online reading + conversation with Monica Youn, R.A. Villanueva, & Ethan Yu.

Co-sponsored by the English Department at the City University of Hong Kong, Asian American Writers Workshop, & Outspoken Press.

More info.

C5BK 5 Central Avenue, Brooklyn New York. Anna Jeke'l’s exhbit will be up & other activities will be happening through the weekend (Oct. 18-20).

Opening reception on Fri. Oct. 18, 6:00-9:00pm

Food + drink.

Reading by Chen Chen - 7:45pm.

Music by First President of Japan Unplugged - 8:00pm.

I’m So Glad I Moved to New York acknowledges that being happy in the city is not negating a naturalistic past nor a sarcastic impossibility, but embracing the tension of being an animal and an artist.

More info.

Join Charlotte Lit faculty for a reading to raise funds for Western NC hurricane recovery! All donations will be sent directly to WNC nonprofits aiding in the recovery effort.

Tickets + more info.

In this talk, we'll question the expectation for creative work to be “universal” by examining how often this term actually refers to/caters to a particular audience and gaze. In place of the universal, I suggest a framework of the communal, one that celebrates difference and listens to (rather than dismisses) anger that demands accountability. Writers and thinkers such as Jennifer Chang, Paul Celan, Sara Ahmed, and Toni Morrison will inform my remarks. Oh, and I'll be discussing a gorgeous, sort of queer movie in the Sailor Moon franchise. There will be time dedicated to drafting a piece that articulates your own artistic and political universe. While my main examples come from poetry, I believe these ideas can apply across genres, so all participants are welcome.

[Zoom session for participants in Ellipsis]

Offsite event in Portland, ME. Official description: Queer writers from Maine and beyond will read their work after hours at Cocktail Mary. Featured writers include Johan Alexander, Chen Chen, Michael Colbert, Melissa Febos, Emily Lowe, Rebecca Turkewitz, and Arisa White.

Full schedule + more info.

Hosted by Mateo Perez Lara.

Hour-long visit on Zoom: short reading + extended Q&A with students.

Poets House in New York City. 6:00pm. Reading and in conversation with Weijia Pan, whose debut collection, Motherlands, will be out from Milkweed Editions.

More info.

Visit to an online poetry class led by Nina Ballerstedt & Callista Pitman. Reading + extended Q&A with the students.

Hosted by ONLY POEMS. Reading with Molly Zhu, followed by short Q&A.

More info.

Free registration.

I’ll be doing an extended Q&A with students on the Eastern Kentucky University campus and then giving a reading on the Berea College campus.

NAWP (Not at AWP) presents a Pride Celebration reading. Hosted by Adrian Dallas Frandle & Nicole Tallman. I’ll be reading with Carling McManus.

More info + free registration.