Iowa City Poetry

Poetry Workshops

HOSTED BY IOWA CITY POETRY

Upcoming Workshops

So You Want to Self-Publish?

Wednesday, September 9, 6:30-8 pm Central

So You Want to Self-Publish?

Kelsey Bigelow

Topics include formatting your pages, creating a cover, publishing platforms, costs that should and should not come with the process, planning your publication timeline, and what comes after hitting "publish."

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Form's Not Dead: New and Invented Forms

Over four Sundays, Sept 13, 20, 27, Oct 4, 12-1:30 pm Central

Form's Not Dead: New and Invented Forms

Griffin Rockwell

In this four-week online workshop, we will explore poems by contemporary poets who have invented new forms and experiment with writing our own versions.

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Crafting Metaphor through the Art of Noticing

Over four Wednesdays, October 7, 14, 21, 28, 6:30-8 pm Central

Crafting Metaphor through the Art of Noticing

Kelsey Bigelow

With in-class writing and workshopping time, we will train our brains to find poetic images in the world around us.

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Past Workshops

  • Opening a Poem: The Power of the Title
    Monday, July 13, 6:30-8 pm

    Opening a Poem: The Power of the Title

    Griffin Rockwell

    By reading poems from Richard Siken, Sharon Olds, Tiana Clark, and others, we’ll explore the ways a title can shape and open a poem, and then experiment with our own titles.

  • Grief Works: Writing through Ritual
    Over four Sundays, July 12, 19, 26, and Aug 2

    Grief Works: Writing through Ritual

    Warren C. Longmire

    The most powerful thing about writing through loss is not finishing a single piece, but exploring what emerges from a sustained ritual practice.

  • Inspired by Oliver: A Generative Writing Workshop
    Sunday, June 28, 1-2:30 pm

    Inspired by Oliver: A Generative Writing Workshop

    Donika Kelly

    Poet & Professor Donika Kelly offers poems and prompts to generate new work inspired by Mary Oliver

  • Rearranging the Room: The Serial Poem
    Over four Sundays, May 10, 17, 24 & 31

    Rearranging the Room: The Serial Poem

    Ryan Collins

    Some ideas, some questions, are so fertile & generative, they cannot be contained or fully realized in the space of a single poem.

  • “Miracles are wrought with axes” – Invective Poetry Workshop
    Sunday, April 26, 5:30-7:30 pm

    “Miracles are wrought with axes” – Invective Poetry Workshop

    Ryan Collins

    Poetry is many things, including an excellent vehicle for carrying our anger into the world.

  • Writing from the Inside Out: Holding a Conversation with Your Emotions
    Monday, April 20, 6-8 pm CDT

    Writing from the Inside Out: Holding a Conversation with Your Emotions

    Caleb "The Negro Artist" Rainey

    Poetry has the power to capture the chaos of emotions inside of us and create something beautiful.

  • Building a Poetry Collection: Arc, Form & Voice
    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.

  • Growing / Gleaning / Gluing: A Generative Workshop on Literary Collage
    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?

  • Tracing Ghosts 2: Typographic and Digital Poetry Techniques
    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.

  • Tracing Ghosts: Documentary Poetry & Practice
    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.

  • Generative Poetry Marathon
    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.

  • Protest with Poetry on the Page & Stage: A Spoken Word Workshop
    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.

  • Musical Muses: Writing Through Music
    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?

  • Poetry as a Coping Tool: A Generative Workshop
    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.

  • Write Down, Speak Out: Youth Slam Poetry
    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.

  • Broadsides: Creative and Independent Techniques
    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.

  • Writing Interiors: An All Genre Workshop
    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.

  • Writing Poetry Toward a Book Form
    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

  • give me a second: a generative poetry editing workshop
    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.

  • Write Down, Speak Out: Youth Slam Poetry
    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.

  • Morning in the Burned House: Writing Poems on Grief & Loss
    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.

  • Beyond Inspiration to Badass: Where Disability, Activism, and Poetry Meet
    4 Wednesdays, June 7-28

    Beyond Inspiration to Badass: Where Disability, Activism, and Poetry Meet

    Sarah Rizzuto

    Join us in solidarity and in celebration!

  • Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals (May)
    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.

  • Planning for Surprise: A Virtual Poetry Workshop
    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?

  • Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals (Dec 10)
    December 10

    Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals (Dec 10)

    Hannah Bonner

  • Submit to Me: Demystifying the Submission Process to Literary Journals
    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

  • Shapes: Poems in Space
    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.

  • The Feedback Chamber
    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.

  • Embracing Rewriting Alongside Revision: A Virtual Poetry Workshop
    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.

  • Lawn of the Poetic Everywhere: A Nature Poetry Workshop
    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.

  • This Compost! Green Whitman
    July 24

    This Compost! Green Whitman

    Dr. Micah Bateman

    Join us at this outdoor writing workshop with poet & Whitman scholar Micah Bateman.

  • Where World and Skin Meet: The Embodied Lyric Essay
    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

  • Dear City: A Free Poetry Workshop with High School Writers
    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!

  • Where World and Skin Meet: The Embodied Poem
    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.

  • Onsense-nay Oems-pay: Workshop on Nonsense Poems
    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.

  • To Hell & Back: A Poetic Journey
    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.

  • The Power of "I": Writing from Experience
    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?

  • Write, Memory: Embracing the Poetic through the Lyric Essay
    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.

  • Beyond Beauty: Poetry as Expansion and Resistance
    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?

  • Closing Time: Using Spoken Word Techniques to Create a Powerful Ending
    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.

  • Bringing the World into Your Poetry
    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.

  • Queer as Form
    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?

  • Poetry in Active Voice - Wednesday Sessions
    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.

  • Poetry in Active Voice - Monday Sessions
    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.

  • Variations on a Theme: The Foundations of a Poetry Project
    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.

  • Walking with Walt
    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

  • The Power of "I": Writing from Experience
    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?

  • Mark-Making ~ The Interplay of Eye and Ear in Poetry
    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?

  • If Not a Luxury: A Workshop in Poetry & Vision
    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.

  • The Poem Inside the Poem: Experiments in Radical Revision
    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."

  • Hook, Line, & Sinker
    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.

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