Building a Poetry Collection: Arc, Form & Voice

Start the new year with intention. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the art (and a little of the business) of shaping a poetry manuscript. Together, we’ll trace narrative and thematic arcs, play with sectioning, experiment with hybrid book forms, and uncover the quiet power of a good title. We’ll also touch on publishing paths, submission strategies, and basic formatting.

Whether you’re starting fresh or wrangling pages toward a draft, expect to leave with a map of your next steps, a list of inspiring collections (including work by Tyehimba Jess, Sarah Kaye, Ilya Kaminsky, Patricia Smith and others), and a sharper sense of the book only you can write.

INSTRUCTOR

Warren C. Longmire is a Negro poet, performer, and technologist from North Philadelphia. A co-founder of the Excelano Project Spoken Word Collective, his work has appeared in Action, Spectacle, The Cleveland Review of Books, and The American Poetry Review. He was featured in The Best American Poetry 2021 (selected by Tracy K. Smith) and A Black Philadelphia Reader: African American Writings About the City of Brotherly Love. His latest book, Bird/Diz [an erased history of bebop], was published by Bunny Presse in 2022. He is currently completing his MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.