Origin Stories: Poems of Self-Discovery

In this generative workshop we’ll discuss poems that transform the autobiographical into the magical—and we’ll write our own poems that attempt to do the same. We’ll look at short but deeply impactful poems by Wo Chan, Lucille Clifton, Leila Chatti, Jenny George, and Kazim Ali. Participants can expect to draft at least three pieces and there will be time to share excerpts generated during the session. Open to those working in any genre who are interested in fresh approaches to autobiographical material. Come prepared to dream and experiment. 

More info to come.

Reading with Margot Kahn, Keetje Kuipers, Luther Hughes, Leigh Sugar, and others.

At Writers & Books in Rochester, NY.

Lost/Found: Writing Love Poems

It’s that time of the year when the heart either sings or screams. Whether you’ve lost (or tossed) a recent love, or are embracing something new, this workshop is for you. Find inspiration in example poems and try your hand at two new drafts on the themes of “goodbye” and “oh, hi”. Spells, screeds, songs of mourning, tears of joy: it’s all fuel for your wild, memorable, and cathartic verse, in this session led by Rochester’s Poet Laureate of Possibilities, Chen Chen.

More info + registration.

2026 Pushcart Prize reading on Zoom hosted by The Writers Studio. With Cyrus Cassells, Sheema Kalbasi, Uche Okonkwo, Keya Mitra, Grace Schulman, & Charles Baxter.

Reading in support of Ally Ang’s debut collection, Let the Moon Wobble (Alice James Books). With singer-songwriter Anju.

More info.

Reading with Kimiko Hahn and Subin Lee at KGB Bar in New York City.

In this generative workshop, we’ll discuss and experiment with a variety of daring approaches that writers today are taking toward the prose poem. These approaches allow each writer to get closer to truths at once difficult and strange. As Chloe Honum says, “Sometimes writing about a new subject matter requires a new form.”

This session will also be available as a recording for purchase after the live workshop.

More info.

Register.

A generative writing workshop benefiting Mission Belonging programs for Veterans, service members, military families, & health care workers.

For this generative workshop, we’ll play with a form that seems to be all about restriction—a poem where your name is the source of all the language you can use. That is, the only words you can use are those made from rearrangements (partial anagrams) of the letters in your name. How can such a restriction lead to a wealth of possibility? We’ll look at two very different examples, then undergo a step-by-step process to build words, then lines.

More info + get tickets.

Are you nervous to write love poetry because you think it’s going to sound cheesy and sentimental? Or are you enthusiastic about writing it but unsure how to make it fresh and exciting? In this generative class we’ll discuss and practice a range of approaches to the love poem—or the poem that talks about love. Such a poem doesn’t have to be about falling in or being in love. And a love poem can also be a political poem.

We’ll read work by Jessica Abughattas, Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, and others, as models for how we might experiment with and love the love poem anew. Participants can expect to draft at least three new pieces.

More info + enroll.

With Mag Gabbert, Leila Chatti, and Carly Joy Miller.

4pm PST / 7pm EST on Zoom

with Rick Barot, Gabrielle Bates, Jenny Johnson, Paul Tran, Rob MacDonald

Register here.

I’ll be teaching this generative workshop again—

Happy Poems

Do they exist? If they do, can they be as good as the poems that wreck us? Can a happy poem wreck us? And how can we avoid sentimentality or is that a risk we just need to take? In this generative session, we’ll look at Ross Gay’s essay, “Joy Is Such a Human Madness” (from his collection The Book of Delights) as a compass for our discussion and a starting point for writing about/from/through happiness, joy, and pleasure. Within the genre of happy poem, we’ll think about poems that celebrate love, sex, community, and connection of various kinds. We’ll examine some model poems by Ross Gay and by others, including Czesław Miłosz, Derrick Austin, Jane Wong, Nikky Finney, and Yanyi. Come prepared to engage in jubilant experimentation.

10 AM – 1 PM PST/ 1 PM – 4 PM EST

More info + register.

Harro East Ballroom
155 N Chestnut Street, downtown Rochester

I’ll be giving a brief reading as a BOA Editions author at this event.

City of Asylum’s iconic Jazz Poetry Month festival continues this week with a set of acclaimed poets and musicians! Each Jazz Poetry program begins with a full set from a live jazz band, followed by a collaboration with local and international poets. In these collaborations, poets share their work alongside the musicians, the two art forms melding to create that signature Jazz Poetry improvisational style that offers something exciting, new, and unique with each individual performance. 

Keeping the celebratory energy going, the second night of Jazz Poetry Month welcomes Nicole Mitchell, the former Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, playing tribute to a selection of Pittsburgh Greats, including Geri Allen, George Benson, and Erroll Garner. Nicole and her quintet are accompanied by poets Chen Chen, whose debut collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, was longlisted for the National Book Award; Cameron Lovejoy, a printer and poet who operates the slow press Tilted House; Roya Marsh, author of the poetry collection dayliGht, which was nominated for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Poetry; and Ajibola Tolase, a Nigerian poet and essayist whose collection 2000 Blacks won the 2024 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

More info + free tickets.

Online reading for the Transatlantic Poetry Series, hosted by Tim Liardet at Bath Spa University in the UK.

Tickets + more info.

Reading with Brenda Hillman for the spring ‘25 PSA Reading Series.

Poetry Society of America
119 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Registration
In-person: $10
Livestream: $5
Free for members

Conversation with members of the Poetry Club/Literature Club and students enrolled in creative writing classes

Reading + Q&A

Since 1997, Northwestern has hosted this event under the guidance of the English Department; in recent years, sponsorship has grown to include the Art Department and the Library.  Our event now encompasses the annual Spring Student Art Show and the public launch of our Mad River Anthology, which has been published annually since the college was founded in 1965.  The Anthology includes poetry, prose, and art from our students, faculty, area high school students, and members of our community.  Poets selected for inclusion in the Anthology are then invited to read their works during the festival. 

SUNY Geneseo - Genesee Valley Literary Forum. Geneseo, NY.

3:00-4:00pm Generative Workshop for SUNY Geneseo students

4:30-5:20pm Reading + Q&A - free and open to the public

5:20-6:00pm Book signing

More info.

Writers on Writing

To take as your subject writers, writing, “the writing world”—is this just annoying? Pretentious? Are there ways to do it well? Perhaps with a healthy dose of humor? In this generative session we’ll discuss and write after an array of examples across genres, including work by Sigrid Nunez, Brenda Shaughnessy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Carl Phillips, and others. We’ll think together about writer as personal vs. cultural identity, the role of the writer today vs. in the past, and the aspirations vs. limitations re: what writing can do politically. I’ll offer some prompts and we’ll experiment, digress, while trying our best not to annoy ourselves. Writers of all genres are welcome.