Free Gen for October: Paula Cisewski

The Free Generative Writing Workshops provide a space for career writers, curious beginners, writers of all levels and stages of life. Our goal is to make it easy to meet and learn from some of the most talented writer/teachers living in or passing through Iowa City. Every month a new writer leads a generative workshop, presenting a prompt inspired by their own preoccupations, passions, or interests.

Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry and PorchLight Literary Arts Center.

This month's leader: Paula Cisewski

Date: Sunday, October 18, 5:30-7 pm Central (3:30 P, 4:30 M, 6:30 E)

Platforms: You're invited to attend online or in person

• To attend online, register HERE. After registering, the Zoom link will be automatically emailed to you
• To attend in person, please join us at PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E. Washington, Iowa City. 

Paula Cisewski is the author of six poetry collections, including her newest, The Becoming Game (Hanging Loose Press), a 2026 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Her other collections include Ceremonies for No Repair, Quitter (winner of the Diode Editions Book Prize), The Threatened Everything, Ghost Fargo (winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize, selected by Franz Wright), and Upon Arrival, as well as several chapbooks.

Cisewski’s poems and prose have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Hanging Loose, 32 Poems, Poetry Northwest, Bennington Review, Conduit, and Brevity. Her work has been featured on Verse Daily and included in several anthologies. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Oberholtzer Foundation, and Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. Her poems have been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize, for Best Spiritual Poetry, and for Best of the Net. 

Cisewski has taught writing privately and academically for more than two decades. She earned her BA from St. Catherine’s University and her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and lives in Minneapolis. She is also a co-editor of Beauty School Editions and maintains a visual art practice.