Once Upon a Midnight Sunrise: Writing Narrative Poems: A Master Class with Tim Seibles (via Zoom)

We often think of fiction as the realm of story and poetry as the realm of lyrical meditation, but poems can also tell stories. We all have memories of stuff that really happened—within our families, with our friends, with our romantic partners, and certainly to each of us alone. Of course, many of us also have the itch to tell tall tales or spin enhanced versions of life moments. In this workshop, we will read and listen to narrative poems by established poets, then carefully examine how they bring various events to life in a relatively short amount of space and time. We will then use prompts to write drafts of our own narrative poems. In addition to engaging several narrative strategies, we will take a closer look at how compression can energize the pulse and movement of a poem.

Born in Philadelphia in 1955, Tim Seibles is the author…