WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS
Workshops will take place from 2:15-3:10 in various rooms within the First Congregational Church.
No need to sign up.
Workshops are available to anyone on a first-come, first-serve, space available basis. All workshops are Free and open to the public.
The Poem on the Page:
What Difference Does a Line Break Make?
Judy Kaber
How does the poet decide where to break a line? What effect do line breaks have on the poem? In this workshop, we’ll look at work by poets such as T.S. Eliot, Kaveh Akbar, and Ada Limòn and explore possible reasons for the way they chose to end lines.
Judy Kaber's poems have appeared in numerous journals. Her contest credits include the Maine Postmark Poetry Contest, the Larry Kramer Memorial Chapbook Contest, and the Maine Poets Society Poem Contest. She is a past poet laureate of Belfast, Maine (2021-23).
Into Wildness: The Untamed Nature Poem
Kimberly Ann Priest
How do poems that celebrate wild earth’s wildness, helping us move beyond conventional attitudes and narrowing restraints? Through an ecofeminist lens, we’ll explore writings by women poets that open our soul and free us from the pressures of progress and commercialization, opening us to nature’s energy of wildness and wonder.
Kimberly Ann Priest, poetry editor for the Nimrod Internat'l Journal of Prose and Poetry, and an award-winning poet, whose most recent collection is Slaughter the One Bird. She teaches in the writing program at Michigan State University. www.kimberlyannnpriest.com
The Art Of Poetry About Art
John Paul Caponigro
The genre of ekphrastic writing is deepening and diversifying our enjoyment of art. Poetry’s versatility and compactness make it an ideal form to practice. John Paul will share famous examples of ekphrastic writing and guide participants through a series of writing prompts that are guaranteed to offer you new insights.
John Paul Caponigro, an internationally collected visual artist and published author, leads adventures in the wildest places on earth to help participants deepen their creative connections with nature. View his TEDx and Google talks at https://www.johnpaulcaponigro.art/poetry/.
Blackout Poetry with Maya Stein
This workshop is for anyone who thinks they can’t write poetry! We’ll be learning about different types of “found poems” and will be creating our own by using an existing text as our canvas.
Maya Stein is Belfast’s current Poet Laureate and has been keeping a weekly short-form poetry practice, “10-Line Tuesday,” since 2005.
Parts of Speech: Activating Our Nouns and Verbs
Arisa White
Nouns and verbs are how we make meaning with language. They’re the heart and pulse of our creative writing. Through a series of exercises, with the hope of sparking surprise, we will explore a few strategies for refreshing your usage of nouns and verbs.
Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of the poetic memoir Who’s Your Daddy and is currently developing with composer Jessica Jones Post Pardon: The Opera. arisawhite.com
Thirteen Ways of Starting a Poem
Kathleen Ellis
In this generative workshop, we consider thirteen ways of starting new poems by reading and discussing the opening lines of different approaches by well-known poets including Emily Dickinson, Frank O'Hara, Li-Young Lee, among others. Participants will write opening lines in response to the style and voice of the first lines.
Kathleen Ellis’ poetry collections include Outer-Body Travel, Narrow River to the North, and the Grayson prize-winner: Body of Evidence. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She teaches poetry and creative writing at the University of Maine in Orono.