In this 4-session class, we will explore different ways to deepen our writing with additional layers of exploration—looking into the allure and enrichment provided by research, as well as trying out hybrid and found strategies. We will sketch out and exchange ideas for amplifying the elements and experiences we bring to our poems, also considering visual interventions. Perhaps we’ll try collage; or turn poems into postcards, cutouts, erasures, illustrated letters, accordion books, mini poetry zines, repurposed books, matchbox poems, poetry prescriptions, and other ways to embody our words and work.

Participants need not have any previous artistic experience— just a willingness to try new things, to play and be spontaneous with their own work. Participants are also encouraged to prepare for this workshop by gathering some basic materials (these don’t have to be new; they can be found objects or recycled as well: pens, pencils, crayons or markers, paint, paper or cardstock, craft paper, grocery bags/paper bags, clippings from magazines or newspapers, fortunes from fortune cookies, old boarding passes or tickets, other ephemera which they might already have, etc.)