June 28, 2026

3 p.m. – 6 p.m. Eastern Time

$50 Full / $25 Scholarship

*Live on Google Meet. This workshop will be recorded.

What feeds us—and frightens us—sometimes lurks underground, like fungal networks, fantastic caves, and weirdly shaped vegetables in root cellars. Poetry has a way of bringing what’s hidden into the light while still honoring its mystery. What’s buried, after all, can sometimes flower. If you’re willing to open that basement door or lift that mossy rock, join us in this generative workshop. We’ll begin by considering how other poets explore underground spaces, including the current U.S. Poet Laureate, Arthur Sze. Writing prompts will get you digging. Writers who wish to can share what they unearth. We’ll also discuss how to develop these drafts, keeping in mind that strong poems often balance disclosure with enigma, manifestation with evocation. Finally, participants will lead the way toward whatever further enlightenment they need, possibly how to establish a fruitful writing practice, revise toward greater poetic power, or submit work for publication.

Lesley Wheeler, Poetry Editor of Shenandoah, is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Mycocosmic. Her other books include the hybrid memoir Poetry’s Possible Worlds and the novel Unbecoming. Wheeler’s work has received support from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Workshop, and other grantors, and in 2011 she won an Outstanding Teacher Award from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia. Her poems and essays appear in Poetry, Poets & Writers, Ecotone, Best American Poetry, and other magazines and anthologies.