Workshop: Poetry

Finding Surprise

Poetry with Stuart Kestenbaum

Robert Frost says “no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” This workshop will provide opportunities to create poems from images, memory, and observation. Activities will focus on generating new work and include short and long writing exercises, looking at examples of other writers, and discussing each other’s work. We’ll start without judging and follow the work where it needs to go.

SUBMIT

After registering, participants in the memoir workshop are asked to send ONE poem for critique/discussion during the retreat no later than 9:00 a.m. on April 22. Please email the manuscripts as attachments to director@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “KESTENBAUM BLACK FLY MSS.” *Word files are preferred, but you may also send a PDF. Please note: there is no printing available at the retreat location.

Stuart Kestenbaum is the author of five collections of poems, most recently How to Start Over (Deerbrook Editions, 2019) and a collection of essays The View From Here (Brynmorgen Press, 2012). The director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 to 2015, he has written and spoken widely on craft making and creativity. He is currently serving as Maine’s poet laureate. Former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has written “Stuart Kestenbaum writes the kind of poems I love to read, heartfelt responses to the privilege of having been given a life. No hidden agendas here, no theories to espouse, nothing but life, pure life, set down with craft and love.”