Inspired by Oliver: A Generative Writing Workshop

Join poet and professor Donika Kelly for a free community writing workshop in which she’ll highlight a selection of poems by Mary Oliver and offer original prompts to spark new writing inspired by the Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Whether you’re a long time fan of Mary Oliver’s poetry, new to her work, or somewhere in between, everybody’s welcome! 

Donika Kelly and Iowa City Poetry are offering this workshop in anticipation of the new documentary, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World,” to be shown at Filmscene in late July. Donika Kelly is featured in the film discussing Mary Oliver’s impact on her own poetry. 

BONUS: Writers who begin pieces in this session may be invited to read their own new work at a special public reading and reception at Filmscene on Tuesday, July 28, 6:15 pm. Info on how to apply to join the reading will be shared during workshop.

Registration required for this free program.

Instructor

DONIKA KELLY is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently The Natural Order of Things. Her work has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She has also been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Publishing Triangle Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and longlisted for the National Book Award. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, Donika has also received an NEA Fellowship and Pushcart Prize. She earned an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in English from Vanderbilt University. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Donika lives in Iowa City with her wife, the nonfiction writer Melissa Febos, and is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Iowa.