Breaking the Bowl 2025
Are you interested in a course that will give you tools to enact for yourself new ways to enliven your writing? In tools that will continue to evolve with you, as you continue to follow your own trajectory?
In this course you’ll discover compelling strategies for inspired revision, augmented by ideas for how to break formal traditions in new ways that reflect and extend your creative repertoire.
Each week, we will feature a short talk by a guest poet, followed by a Q&A; each poet will share with candor the creative directions, the risks, the challenges, they each face in their own work.
Maria Nazos and Reginald Gibbons: Traveling Mollys Q and A
had an illuminating reading and conversation with Northwestern University Professor Emeritus, poet, translator, and writer Reginald Gibbons. When asked about my translations, I said, “It’s something that actually overtakes you.” When asked about his translated work, Reg said, “Russian syntax is totally flexible. The sounds you use love to make sure every end of the line rhyme-word is an image…chosen because of the way the word sounds… It’s like a complicated woven carpet.”
We also discuss Yannis Ritsos’ use of miracles and metaphors. I point to one of Ristos’ poems in which spools of thread fall to the floor. I said, “He was speaking to the idea of a miracle...without naming it, this simple event happening, but also that which cannot be explained by rational experience or language.”
Finally, I had the privilege of asking Reg about his impressive career, “Has it always been smooth sailing for you?”
Find out what he says.
Thanks to Traveling Mollys, Nina Corwin, and Albert DeGenova for hosting this event.
Sorry, Not Sorry: Curses, Confessions & Apologies for Things You're Secretly Glad You Did
How do we interrogate meanness, retribution, and anger in our poems? How do we turn rage into light and heat? This virtual craft talk will investigate how we can project our unflinching humanity on the page while remaining likable. We’ll explore various poets who manage to get away with risky confessions, potentially volatile statements, and controversial revelations, all the while asking ourselves, what keeps us as distant readers engaged? When are we turned off? Is there a way we can ethically invoke shock, discomfort, AND compassion toward ourselves, our subjects, and our readers? The last half hour of class will then be devoted to creating our own ethical “mean-person” on the page through a series of guided writing prompts. We’ll have a wonderful time!
One-day workshop with Nebraska Poetry Society. Sign up here.
Fireside Chat: Martín Espada and Maria Nazos Talk Poetic Craft
Craft talk and generative webinar.
Registration here.
What the %^&* Did I Just Say? Tackling, the Bold, the Bad, and the Ugly in Poems
Thursdays, Jan. 27th-March 17th
6pm-8:30pm CST
Throughout this eight-week generative course, we’ll investigate how we can project our unflinching humanity onto the page while remaining likable and approachable. Is there a way we can ethically invoke shock, discomfort, AND compassion toward ourselves, our subjects, and our readers? Find out and register here.
A good part of class will then be devoted to creating our own ethical “mean-person” on the page through a series of optional, guided writing prompts. You’ll also explore free-verse and lesser-known poetic forms and themes, including curses, apologies, and Eastern forms, including the list and senryu.
Saints, Bitches, and Madmen: Ethically Unleashing Your Inner Mean Person on the Page
How do you take authentic, wild, even mean risks in your work? How do you reveal yourself as sloppy, flawed, even unlikable while keeping a distant reader engaged? Is there a "right" way to be mean in poetry? If so, how do we arrive there?
One-day webinar with Larksong Writers Place. Sign up here.
Trauma, Sex, and Resilience in Forms and Freeverse
In this four-week course, we’ll use formal poetry as a way to tame and set loose our obsessions.
Travel, Sex, Form, & Free-Verse: Writing about the Physical and Erotic
A 4-week generative virtual poetry workshop led by myself and Ciara Shuttleworth.
“Are You Writing about Your Mother Again? Formal Poetry to Tame the Demons of Obsession,” Larksong Writers’ Place
Throughout this five-week course, we’ll test our obsessions against formal constraints, including...the pantoum. What happens when we set our demons free, then reign them back in? Find out and register here: http://bit.ly/Larksongworkshop.
WS dates: Sept. 14 - Oct. 12
Times: 6 - 8:30 pm CST
Length: 5 weeks
Participants: 5 people
History Nebraska - History Cafe
What do a chicken purse, Ted Kooser, Audre Lorde, and a yellow ball have in common with my craft? Find out!
At the Nebraska Historical Society’s History Cafe, I’ll read poems and discuss my craft. Trumpet player Darryl White, (with Kevin Llyod as accompanist) will perform and speak about Jazz history. Register at https://bit.ly/HistoryCafeJazzandPoetry.
A Ted Kooser Tribute
Join us for a celebration in honor of Ted Kooser -
The new book More in Time is a celebration and tribute to Ted Kooser, two-time U.S. Poet Laureate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Presidential Professor of the University of Nebraska. Through personal reflections, essays, and creative works both inspired by and dedicated to Kooser, this collection shines a light on the many ways the midwestern poet has affected others as a teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend, as well as a fellow writer and observer-of-the-world. The creative responses included in this volume are reflective of the impact Kooser has had in his connections to other writers, while also revealing glimpses of his distinct way of seeing.
Uncloistered Poetry
Poetry reading with Darren Demaree, Sandra Feen, Jojo Compton. Features followed by open mic (5 minutes per reader).
Bloom Readings
With Kristin Fields, Eileen Pollack, Tommye Blount. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/BloomReadings.
Sacramento Poetry Center: Socially Distance Verse
Poetry reading - Zoom link coming soon