CLASSROOMS
Classrooms
“Live” Poet Camp events meet on Google Meet.
Asynchronous Poet Camp classes are hosted on Wet.Ink, an online learning platform designed for writing workshops.
The only classes which have “official” start dates are those labeled “Workshop,” which include Sarah’s comments, and those only apply to those taking the class with her feedback. Otherwise, they begin when you’re ready!
Independent poets determine their own start date. Self-guided courses are ready when you are, and begin the first day you log into the course.
Writer’s Groups should come to an agreement about what date you’d like to begin, and mail Sarah to make arrangements.
Craft Cafeteria: Essentials
$35 per session, or $125 for all 4
Each week in Craft Cafeteria: Essentials, we’ll focus on tools which are the ones I think are most important to use with intention. I’ve designed this course for beginning poets who are just beginning to experiment with using craft to underscore meaning, as well as for poets who have been using these worn tools for years, but who’d like to brush up their skills.
Each week, we will look at 2-3 poems each week (which everyone will get in advance). I’ll share a few craft thoughts, and make some observations about each individual poem, then I’ll share two prompts for the week ahead.
There will be time for group discussion and observations, questions and recommendations.
*These are LIVE via Google Meet.
8/21 Week 1: The House of the Poem: Line breaks, stanzas and white space
9/3 Week 2: Prominent places: Titles, last lines, first lines
10/2 Week 3: Within Reach: Extension, activation and gesture
11/21 Week 4: Music: Soundplay, rhythm and repetition
12/8 Week 5: Read-around and Closing Notes (included in registration for any/all weeks)
*Always 7:30-9:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Mutant Genres
Writing Prose Poetry & Poetic Prose
with Jane Huffman
September 29, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Eastern Time
$100
*Live on Google Meet. This workshop will be recorded.
In this four-hour class, students will explore the exciting possibilities of integrating prose and poetry into “hybrid” and “mutant” forms of writing, those methods such as the “prose poem” and the “lyric essay” that defy straightforward categorization. These forms of writing allow us to “fetch the bolt-cutters,” in the words of the great songwriter Fiona Apple, and experiment with what happens when we release our grips on the usual parameters of traditional genres. Students will have the chance to closely examine examples of “hybrid” literature written by contemporary authors in a fun and guided environment, with the goal of extracting tools and practices they can use to create their own “mutant” pieces. Students will also have the chance to practice these new skills during the session: they should expect to engage with some fun and generative free-writing and experimentation in real time. This workshop is appropriate for writers of any experience level seeking a fun, low-pressure learning environment where risk-taking and laughter are encouraged and welcome. Students will have the chance to share their work with the group only if they choose to.
Jane Huffman
Jane Huffman is the author of Public Abstract, winner of the 2023 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. She is a doctoral student in English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver. Her poems have appeared in The Nation, Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She was a 2019 recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.
*Self-guided courses are ready when you are! Independent poets determine their own start date. Writer’s Groups should come to an agreement about what date you’d like to begin.
Tarot Poems
*Asynchronous, Wet.Ink
$350, 9 week course, with Sarah’s comments on 4 poems *limit 12 seats,
Wednesday, September 25 – Tuesday, November 26
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$275 Writers Group, 9 week course *3-5 members per group
Group votes on start date.
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$225 Independent, 8 week course
Start when you’re ready.
Each week we’ll explore a different aspect of the tarot (history, suits, major arcana, ritual, layouts, relationships, and more), and read 1-2 source texts by authors who explore these themes. The readings will be paired with a brief experiment to guide you into the prompt, and help you “draw out” images unique to the deck you choose. Every week will also include optional viewing/listening assignments to provide multiple entry points into new work. You’ll be encouraged to post your fresh drafts if you like for light criticism and positive peer feedback. By the end of class, you’ll have 7-8 fresh drafts and a number of fun ways you can use the Tarot in your writing even after the course has ended.
Haunted Poems
*Asynchronous, Wet.Ink
$275 Writers Group, 8 week course *3-5 members per group
Group votes on start date.
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$225 Independent, 7 week course
Start when you’re ready.
In this generative workshop, we’ll write poems of our haunted-ness and hauntings, of people we’ve ghosted and the ones that haunt us, places we can’t return to and the ones we can’t leave, items we’ll never get back and things that seem to multiply or re-appear no matter how many times we try to get rid of them. We’ll use prompts with model texts by poets Kristina Marie Darling, Dana Levin, Lisa Sewell, Helen Ivory, James Wright, Shane McCrae and Joy Harjo, paired with optional short listening/watching assignments to open up a different way to summon/speak to our ghosts. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have 6-7 newly drafted poems.
Very Superstitious: Poems of Everyday Magic
*Asynchronous, Wet.Ink
$275 Writers Group, 9 week course *3-5 members per group
Group votes on start date.
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$225 Independent, 8 week course
Start when you’re ready.
In this class we’ll write lucky charms, invent horoscope poems, divine lines from oracle card readings, and take inspiration from everyday magic. Each week we’ll read 1-2 source texts paired with a brief example text from the folklore focus for the week. We’ll write new poems born out of a prompt linked to that week’s topic. Every week will also include optional viewing/listening assignments to provide multiple entry points into inspiration.
Muse as Dryad
*Asynchronous, Wet.Ink
$275 Writers Group, 9 week course *3-5 members per group
Group votes on start date.
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$225 Independent, 8 week course
Start when you’re ready.
is class we’ll write poems from the lungs of the earth, each week approaching the woods from a different angle. We’ll consider their science, and explore forest folklore and fairy tales. We’ll end in contemplative eco-poetry and with celebration. Each week you’ll write new poems born out of a prompt linked to that week’s topic, inspired and informed by resources provided for the sake of multiple entry points into inspiration.
Hygge Poems
*Asynchronous, Wet.Ink
$275 Writers Group, 9 week course *3-5 members per group
Group votes on start date.
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$225 Independent, 8 week course
Start when you’re ready.
In this class, we’ll write ourselves into the concept of hygge, leaning through our lines into the pumpkin spiced coziness of Fall. We’ll write seven to eight poems inspired by anchor texts by poets who lean into this Swedish concept, which spread during the early pandemic, when all of us were seeking a little more comfort. We’ll use prompts and course readings to inspire new work using hygge’s core tenants to strengthen our creative resilience even after the season has passed.
December Jumpstarts
Monday – Friday, 2 weeks
12/2 – 12/6 and 12/9 – 12/13
9 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Eastern Time
$50 / $25 for 1st Time Jumpstarters
2 weeks of live Google Meet jumpstarts with prompts, quick-writes and a pdf full of extras to recharge your daily writing routine.
*Join us for all or just a few of these sessions! Everyone who registers will receive the pdf with prompts and extras at the end of our two weeks together.
Sarah note: If the reduced rate would enable you to join us, please use that link. No questions asked! <3