Hudson Valley Writers Center

"Wishing I could get out of this alive," Ai writes in “I Have Got to Stop Loving You" as she reflects on a troubled relationship, "I hug myself./It is hard to remember if he suffered much." In this workshop, students will generate new work by exploring the intersections of heartbreak and sacrifice alongside unbridled joy and euphoria that complex relationships can yield. We will also read work from contemporary authors like Jericho Brown, Richard Siken and Safiya Sinclair. This class will…

In the first hour of this workshop, I will discuss poems that extend beyond personal experience and into material that involves research (historical, social, nature-related, etc.) or current or recent events— without sacrificing personal involvement and feeling. The remainder of the workshop will be devoted to a discussion of your work. Please send a poem of no more than one page to me at [email protected] by August 5th. This class is capped at 12 students. It will take place via Zoom. Zoom link…

or…What Can Happen When Your Mother Writes The Poem Who hasn’t written—perhaps too many times to count— the overly-ambiguous poem? We may have attempted to employ ambiguity intentionally, repressing aspects of narrative we wish to avoid, gravities we haven’t yet defined—only to find our readers can’t find the there there. In this class we’ll examine the relationship between ambiguity & the authoritative posture in poems that successfully leave us guessing. Reviewing work by Terrance Hayes, Valerie Martinez, Mark Halliday, Wislawa…

The art of the ekphrastic poem — inspired by painting, photography, cinema, and sculpture —has a long and important history, from such great poets such as Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, William Carlos Williams, Wislawa Symborksa, Elizabeth Bishop, Molly Peacock, and A.E.Stallings. It continues to be a thriving poetic genre, a collaboration of two arts. In this workshop, we will study some of the best examples of ekphrastic poetry and the art that inspires it. We will discuss the creative process…

An engaging and provoking poetry masterclass with Nick Makoha, winner of the Brunel University African Poetry Prize 2015. It explores the Black Metic Experience of poets and investigates how writers in exile are differentiated from natives. As a writer in exile himself, Nick uses Metic to explain the phenomena experienced by black writers in the UK and the US. The aim is to investigate each participants’ own unique Metic experience. A metic is an individual whose allegiances are split between…

Please note that this workshop is now sold out. If you want to be put on the waiting list for this workshop, or have questions about other workshop options, please email [email protected]rg In many civilizations of the ancient world, fire was often thought to be one of the four elements of being. One can still see how central it is to our daily experience. Just think of all the fire, both literal and metaphorical, that we have within and around…

This workshop focuses on the art of editing, and offers techniques that help writers re-enter that old friend, the poem that’s almost finished, with renewed creative energy. The one you’ve read and reread, and tweaked and put in the drawer. Each poet can bring in any poem they wish, even a new one. Bring in a piece (up to one full page) that’s almost there, but perhaps has been rejected by one journal or more that you respect. The intention is to bring fresh…

John James is the author of The Milk Hours, selected by Henri Cole for the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize (Milkweed, 2019). He is also the author of Chthonic, winner of the 2014 CutBank Chapbook Award. His poems appear in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, PEN America, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. A digital collagist, his image-text experiments appear in Quarterly West, The Adroit Journal, and LIT. Also a scholar, John writes on poetry and poetics from 1740 to the present. He has presented papers at Yale University, the University…

“…The poet shows how the invisible is more real than the visible—that the visible is merely a late outcome of an invisible reality that rules us the way the subconscious rules us.  Our dreamscape is larger and rules us more than this waking state.  Beyond the dreamscape there is another consciousness...” --Li Young Lee for Kenyon Review  Feeling mired in your writing practice?  Open to challenging how your poems get to the page?  Join us for a generative workshop where we will cultivate space for the…

NB: This four-hour workshop will be taught on Zoom. It will be capped at 12 students. January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. From 2012-2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and currently serves on the boards of AWP, Mass Poetry, and Montserrat College of Art. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural…

Join Safia Jama as she guides you through prompts and exercises to unlock your autumnal creative energy. NB: This class will be capped at 15 and taught on Zoom. Safia Jama was born to a Somali father and an Irish American mother in Queens, New York. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, she has published poetry in Ploughshares, RHINO, Cagibi, Boston Review, Spoken Black Girl and No, Dear. Her poetry has also been featured on WNYC’s Morning Edition and CUNY TV’s…

This class will be held on Zoom. Login instructions will arrive via email as soon as you register to whatever email address you use to register. Please check your spam or promotions folder and save the zoom link. Please email [email protected] with any questions. Kofi Antwi is an African American poet, English professor, and graduate of St. Joseph’s College MFA Creative Writing program. He was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island by parents of Ghanaian descent. Kofi’s poetry has…

This craft talk will focus on poems by Dickinson, Gregerson, and Sharif. It will explore overt and hidden forms. There will be prompts based on the poems and the discussion. More details to follow! NB: This is not a workshop it is a craft talk and will be taught via Zoom and will be capped at 20. David Baker is a poet, educator, editor, and literary critic.  He was born in 1954 in Bangor, Maine, grew up in Jefferson City,…