Poetry Workshops
HOSTED BY IOWA CITY POETRY
Upcoming Workshops
New workshops are in development now! In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our home page to see what else is coming up, or subscribe to our newsletter to get an email about new workshops as soon as they're announced!
Past Workshops
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Sunday, January 11, 2:30-4 pm, online
Building a Poetry Collection: Arc, Form & Voice
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the art (and a little of the business) of shaping a poetry manuscript.
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Four Sundays, January 4, 11, 18, 25
Growing / Gleaning / Gluing: A Generative Workshop on Literary Collage
Sarah Elgatian
We'll ask ourselves what objects, media, forms, or genres can best support or open up this piece? Make it unravel?
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August 2, 12:30-2:30 pm
Tracing Ghosts 2: Typographic and Digital Poetry Techniques
Warren C. Longmire
This workshop explores how poetry can move beyond the line and into the visual field using free or low-cost web-based software.
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Sunday, June 8, 15, 22, 29
Tracing Ghosts: Documentary Poetry & Practice
Warren Longmire
Documentary poetry offers us a way to honor what’s been overlooked. It’s a chance to tell the stories that matter most—starting with our own.
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Four Wednesdays, June 4, 11, 18, 25
Generative Poetry Marathon
Margaret Yapp
A fast-paced and exciting marathon of generative and editing exercises that build on each other.
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Four Wednesdays, May 7, 14, 21, 28
Protest with Poetry on the Page & Stage: A Spoken Word Workshop
Caleb Rainey
In times like these, we need even more writers who will take the brave step into the world of spoken word.
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Over four Saturdays, April 12, 19, 26, May 3
Musical Muses: Writing Through Music
Glen Waters
How does utilizing music as the force for thoughts further push your resonance with readers?
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Over four Sundays, Feb 2, 9, 16, & 23
Poetry as a Coping Tool: A Generative Workshop
Kelsey Bigelow
This workshop dives into methods for writing poetry through grief, loss, and trauma.
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June 17-21, 2:00-5:00 pm
Write Down, Speak Out: Youth Slam Poetry
Caleb "The Negro Artist" Rainey
With spoken word/slam poetry as our guide, we will learn ways to write with a power & complexity that stays true to our story.
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March 6, 13, 20, 27
Broadsides: Creative and Independent Techniques
Dana King and Margaret Yapp
There are infinite ways to make a broadside — one-of-a-kinds and editions — and in this four-session class, participants will design, develop, and print at least two of their own broadsides.
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Oct 7, 14, 21, 28 online
Writing Interiors: An All Genre Workshop
Glen Waters
How we decorate our interior houses is how we view our interior selves, and to explore this interior is to tap into a pool of creative energy.
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Sept 10, 17, Oct 1, 8 in person
Writing Poetry Toward a Book Form
Margaret Yapp
Join us in person at PorchLight to generate new writing intended for book form and learn intro-level skills to make your own books
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Sunday, July 9
give me a second: a generative poetry editing workshop
Dani Charles
This is the workshop for the people who want a moment of guided editing activities to help them look at their work with fresh eyes.
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June 12-16, 2-5 pm
Write Down, Speak Out: Youth Slam Poetry
Caleb "The Negro Artist" Rainey
With spoken word/slam poetry as our guide, we will learn ways to write with a power & complexity that stays true to our story.
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Four Saturdays, June 10, 17, 24, July 1
Morning in the Burned House: Writing Poems on Grief & Loss
Joan Kwon Glass
In this generative workshop, we will write poems about what and whom we have lost and how we move forward.
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4 Wednesdays, June 7-28
Beyond Inspiration to Badass: Where Disability, Activism, and Poetry Meet
Sarah Rizzuto
Join us in solidarity and in celebration!
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Saturday, May 6
Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals (May)
Hannah Bonner
Join us to discuss and demystify the process of submitting to journals.
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Jan 22, Jan 29, Feb 5, Feb 12
Planning for Surprise: A Virtual Poetry Workshop
Chad Abushanab
How do we move away from what we wanted to say in order to access the things we didn’t know we needed to say?
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December 10
Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals (Dec 10)
Hannah Bonner
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Dec 3 or Dec 10
Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals
Hannah Bonner
Register for either the Dec 3 or Dec 10 workshop
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Oct 15, 22, 29, Nov 5
Shapes: Poems in Space
Nora Claire Miller
During weekly in-class and at-home assignments, we’ll survey the shapes that our poems make and try our hands at some new ones.
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October 1, 8, 15, 22
The Feedback Chamber
Micky Bayonne
As writers, we often find ourselves struggling with one piece of writing for weeks (sometimes even months). We know the work needs something, but we cannot identify exactly what.
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August 6, 13, 20, 27
Embracing Rewriting Alongside Revision: A Virtual Poetry Workshop
Hannah Bonner
In this four-week poetry workshop, we will generate new work and embrace radical rewriting, exploring every angle, voice, and format of a poem’s potential.
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August 7, 14, 21, 28
Lawn of the Poetic Everywhere: A Nature Poetry Workshop
Hannah Bonner
Join us in the Public Space Gardens, where this site of fecundity will inspire writing about landscapes, trees, flowers, and environmental justice.
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July 24
This Compost! Green Whitman
Dr. Micah Bateman
Join us at this outdoor writing workshop with poet & Whitman scholar Micah Bateman.
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Sunday, July 10, 1:30-3:30 CT
Where World and Skin Meet: The Embodied Lyric Essay
Hannah Soyer
This generative writing workshop invites participants to explore what it means to put body to words
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April 12 & 16, May 9
Dear City: A Free Poetry Workshop with High School Writers
Caleb "The Negro Artist" Rainey & Cory Hutchinson-Reuss
Join us to start a new piece, get published online, and have your poems displayed as public art!
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April 9
Where World and Skin Meet: The Embodied Poem
Hannah Soyer
This workshop invites participants to explore what it means to put body to words — to attempt to capture the tangible in the intangible.
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April 5, 12, 19, 26
Onsense-nay Oems-pay: Workshop on Nonsense Poems
Nora Claire Miller
Join us for some serious play as we explore relationships to the idea of "nonsense" in poetry.
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Jan 8, 15, 22, 29
To Hell & Back: A Poetic Journey
Becca Klaver
Part poetry workshop, part mythic quest, this session invites participants to go down to the underworld and reemerge to make poetry out of what is found there.
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October 9, 16,23, 30
The Power of "I": Writing from Experience
Micky Bayonne
The coffee pot in the morning, the conversations with friends, the show you have been shamelessly binge watching. How do we translate that to the page?
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August 8, 15, 22, 29
Write, Memory: Embracing the Poetic through the Lyric Essay
Hannah Bonner
Explore memory through the lyric essay, a hybrid form that complements the circuitous, nonlinear nature of recollection.
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July 11, July 18, July 25, August 1
Beyond Beauty: Poetry as Expansion and Resistance
Jessica Lawson
What kinds of poetic topics, poetic forms, and human lives exist in Beauty’s shadow?
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June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28
Closing Time: Using Spoken Word Techniques to Create a Powerful Ending
Caleb "The Negro Artist" Rainey
From effective final lines to structure subversion, spoken word artists have found multiple ways to leave audiences stunned.
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June 1, June 8, June 15, June 22
Bringing the World into Your Poetry
Hannah Bonner
Over the past year, we have spent so much time separated from the outside world. Over four weeks in June, we will explore ways in which to bring the world into our poetry.
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May 15, May 22, May 29, June 5
Queer as Form
Jessica Lawson
Is queer poetry just using old tools to tell new stories? Are there poetic forms that are themselves queer?
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March 17, March 24, March 31, April 7
Poetry in Active Voice - Wednesday Sessions
Steven Willis
With influences from Spoken Word, Shakespeare, and American Poetic Realism in theater, Willis shows how the single person speaking in real time is the most underutilized element of poetry.
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March 15, March 22, March 29, April 5
Poetry in Active Voice - Monday Sessions
Steven Willis
With influences from Spoken Word, Shakespeare, and American Poetic Realism in theater, Willis shows how the single person speaking in real time is the most underutilized element of poetry.
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February 27, March 6, March 13, March 20
Variations on a Theme: The Foundations of a Poetry Project
Micky Bayonne
This four-week workshop will investigate methods for beginning work on a poetry “project” or a series of poems with a common origin.
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January 9, January 16, January 23
Walking with Walt
Micah Bateman and Danielle Wheeler
Whitman will serve as our touchstone as we discover new verse forms and chart poetic pathways
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November 7, November 14, November 21
The Power of "I": Writing from Experience
Micky Bayonne
The coffee pot in the morning, the conversations with friends, the show you have been shamelessly binge watching. How do we translate that to the page?
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October 8, October 15, October 22, October 29
Mark-Making ~ The Interplay of Eye and Ear in Poetry
Shira Dentz
What motivates a writer to push outside the lines?
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September 9, September 16, September 23
If Not a Luxury: A Workshop in Poetry & Vision
Becca Klaver
As Lorde writes: “For women, then, poetry is not a luxury.
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August 22, August 29, September 12
The Poem Inside the Poem: Experiments in Radical Revision
Nora Claire Miller
During this three week workshop, we will investigate what it means for the poems we have already written to "begin to live."
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MAY 19, MAY 26, JUNE 2
Hook, Line, & Sinker
Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey
When a poet steps to the microphone, truth on the tip of their tongue and vulnerability in their voice, you listen.