This workshop is FULL. If you'd like to be added to the waitlist, please email programs@mainewriters.org
A 5-Week Poetry Workshop
Thursdays, September 16 to October 14
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
In this master class, participants will explore variations in form in their free-verse work as they write and workshop new poems.
With a steadfast eye on the relationship between style and content, the class will explore the myriad ways that form in free-verse can transform or expand a poem’s possibilities.
In addition to crafting their own formal strategies from real world examples, participants will also have the opportunity to work with received forms. Discussions will naturally extend to the verse line and how it operates within free-verse poems.
This course is designed to sharpen poets’ attention to form and its interplay with content. The class will read a variety of poems, by poets such as Denis Johnson, Marilyn Hacker, Terrance Hayes, and many others.
For the first class, participants should bring a completed poem that they found difficult to execute with regard to form (line breaks, stanza breaks, etc.). In class, they will respond to these poems with a writing exercise, the results of which will supply the material for their first assignment.
Participants should be prepared to write a poem a week. Every week, the instructor will provide an optional assignment modeled on a poem discussed in class. Participants’ poems will be workshopped every other week, for a total of two poems over the course of 5 weeks.
Each week’s session will include a writing prompt, workshopping, and discussion of several texts.
+ SUBMIT After registering, participants are asked to submit a manuscript of up to 3 poems by no later than 9:00 AM on September 9. These poems will not be workshopped; the instructor will be reading them to get a sense of your work. Please email the manuscript to programs@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “MARVIN WORKSHOP MSS.” *Word docs (ideally) or PDFs only, please.
+ PLEASE NOTE This workshop will occur online via Zoom. Students do not need to create an account to participate, but should test out Zoom before their class if they are first-time users. On Tuesday, September 14, from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, MWPA staff will offer a tech help session on Zoom. Students are encouraged to attend the tech help session, which usually takes only 5-10 minutes, if they have any tech concerns, use Zoom infrequently, or simply would like to test their connection, and those who do not are responsible for ensuring that they are able to use Zoom on their own. The week of the workshop, students will be emailed a link that they may click to enter the test session and the class.
+ REQUIRED EQUIPMENT A reliable, fast internet connection (broadband wired or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE), speakers & a microphone (built-in or USB plug-in), and a webcam (built-in or USB plug-in).
If you would like to quickly and easily test your internet connection and your computer’s compatibility with Zoom, click HERE. Full details on supported Operating Systems, internet browsers, and more can be found HERE. To download and familiarize yourself with Zoom, click HERE.
PAYMENTS MWPA members may pay for this workshop in one payment, or may pay in two installments of $122.50, due at registration and October 4. *PLEASE NOTE If you have selected to pay for this multi-week workshop on the installment option, once registration for the workshop has closed, you are responsible for paying all of the remaining installments. If you should, for any reason, leave the workshop after registration has closed, you are still responsible for paying all of the remaining installments.
CEU The MWPA is proud to offer Continuing Education Units (CEU) for this workshop. The CEU is a nationally recognized method of quantifying the time spent in the classroom during non-credit learning. Ten hours of instruction equal one (1) CEU. (*Please note that by definition, CEUs are non-credit continuing education and therefore not transferrable as academic credit.)
Cate Marvin’s first book, World’s Tallest Disaster, was chosen by Robert Pinsky for the 2000 Kathryn A. Morton Prize and published by Sarabande Books in 2001. In 2002, she received the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize. She co-edited with poet Michael Dumanis the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande Books, 2006). Her second book of poems, Fragment of the Head of a Queen, for which she received a Whiting Award, was published by Sarabande in 2007. Marvin teaches poetry writing in the Stonecoast M.F.A. Program at the University of Southern Maine and is Professor of English at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. In 2009, she co-founded the nonprofit organization VIDA: Women in Literary Arts with poet Erin Belieu. Her third book of poems, Oracle, was released from W.W. Norton & Co. in 2015. A recent Guggenheim Fellow, she lives in Scarborough, Maine. Event Horizon, her fourth collection, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2022.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advance registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online (see below). We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact Hannah Perry at hannah@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-228-8263 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one full scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due on September 6 at 9:00 a.m.
→ MORE INFORMATION
MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION