Hey Friends,
It’s been awhile. I guess holding down what have been essentially two full-time jobs for the past six and a half years hasn’t left me much time to send out newsletters or even to write poetry. But here I am again.
Just three days ago, I finally handed the mantle of director of the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference to the amazing Mercedes O’Leary Harness. She’s going to do such a great job making the conference even better. I really enjoyed my time at the helm, but starting last fall, I began to really feel the weight of being responsible for two large literary community undertakings. I’ll still be holding down the fort at Storyknife Writers Retreat, and I consider it a real privilege to be able to facilitate incredible women writers having the time and space to devote to their work.
I’m hoping that the gap that giving something up has opened will be filled with my own writing. It’s going to take a bit of recovery time, but I feel the generative urge trickling around under the surface these day and that makes me so hopeful.
I’ve always found that teaching has really lit a fire under my own work, so when I had a chance to teach an online class in poetry for Orion Magazine Workshops, I accepted. I’ve subscribed to Orion FOREVER, so it’s a real honor to be part of their family.
Here’s the course description if you think you might be interested:
From Lichen to Glacier – The Gift of Attention
When we write about landscapes we know well and inhabit, it is easy to stop truly seeing and fall into habits surrounding language, image, and form. When this happens, poets need to find ways to reinvigorate their attention. In this generative poetry class, we’ll look at ways to reposition ourselves in the landscape, refresh our language, employ form to revive our vision, and supercharge our imagery past the surface attributes.
In this eight-week course we will discuss ways to refocus our attention as poets by examining anchor texts by various contemporary poets and then trying out the techniques in our own work with some generative exercises. Poets should bring a good idea of which landscapes are often featured in their work, and they will leave with five or six new poems that re-envision those places with refreshed attention.
Duration: This online course meets across eight consecutive Sundays from 2-4 pm ET (11-1 pm PT), beginning on September 6th and concluding on October 25th.
Application window: July 1-15
You can learn more and apply here!
In the meantime, I hope that you are all finding the long light of summer is flowering in your work. More poems! More stories! More plays! More novels! More essays! More of the generative force that heals and lifts!
May we all help each other thrive and create.
xoxox
Erin
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