WORKSHOPS & EVENTS CALENDAR, 2018
Poetry is knowledge, salvation, power, abandonment. An operation capable of changing the world, poetic activity is revolutionary by nature; a spiritual exercise, it is a means of interior liberation. Poetry reveals this world; it creates another. -Octavio Paz
Event Archives 2017
JANUARY
RANCHOS DE TAOS, NEW MEXICO
The 6th Annual Mind of Winter Springs Open!
Poem-A-Day Poetry Writing Workshop”
- Dates: Friday, January 5 – Thursday, January 11, 2018
- Times: Daily, 12 noon – 3:00 pm, for One Week
- Location: Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
Description: This poetry-writing event is meant to help us create, as poet Robert Hass says, poems that are “stronger and truer than ever before.” We will meet each day to share poems written within the previous 24 hours. At our first meeting, you’ll be offered a series of prompts toward the creation of a new poem. After that, you’ll bring the first draft of a new poem to our workshop each day. At the end of each workshop you’ll be provided with a magic packet to draw from, if you wish, for the inspiration of your next poem. You will be free to use the suggestions from the packets in whatever way you wish, or not at all. We’ll engage in a craft discussion of hand-out poems each day and you’ll be eligible for one 15 minute private session with Sawnie to discuss your poems. Writers at all levels of writing experience are welcome.
TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE IN the WORKSHOP AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
HOUSTON, TEXAS
A POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP, with Sawnie Morris
- Date: Saturday, January 27th, 2018
- Times: 10am-3:00pm
- Location: Houston, Texas
Description: Poetry for Prose Readers & Other Lovers of Language. What happens to us when we read a poem – when we are moved and we find it hard to say why? What has the poet done to orchestrate language in such a way as to create a meaningful experience in us, her readers? In this workshop we’ll read a selection of poems for that meaningful experience, for how the poems make us feel, what they cause us to ponder. Then we’ll go back and look at each poem the way a poet does, navigating her craft. We’ll also experiment with doing a little writing of our own, just for fun! Bring a notebook and a pen with which you enjoy writing.
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
FEBRUARY
PORTLAND, OREGON
WRITING WORKSHOP at LITERARY ARTS
THE MAGIC OF THE POETIC LINE: A generative workshop in which we explore the craft of line breaks and other visual and auditory experiences
- Date: Saturday & Sunday, February 10 & 11, 2018
- Times: 10am – 2:00 pm
- Location: Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington, Portland, Oregon
Description: Part of what makes poetry a magical art is the poet’s ability to orchestrate language in a way that creates an unforgettable experience in a reader. Line breaks, spacing, and punctuation provide cues intrinsic to that orchestration. How do we determine when and why to break the lines in our poems? How might visual spacing or punctuation further reveal a poem’s meanings? We’ll consider a sampling of exciting free-verse possibilities available to us in the shaping of our poems and we’ll write, keeping in mind that every turn of the line is a turn toward deeper meaning.
* This workshop will include a lunch/writing break from 12:00 to 1:30 pm.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
DENVER, COLORADO
LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS WORKSHOPS
REVISION, REVISION, REVISION: AN ADVANCED POETRY WRITNG WORKSHOP
- Date: Saturday, February 24, 2018
- Times: 10 am – 4:00 pm
- Location: Lighthouse Writers Workshops, 1515 Race Street, Denver, Colorado
Description: What we see, we see, and seeing is changing,” wrote Adrienne Rich. The poet Brenda Hillman says she sometimes revises her poems by hand 100 times before transcribing to the computer. Allen Ginsberg sung in praise of “first thoughts, best thoughts.” Ezra Pound revised T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” to such a degree that the resulting poem approximates collaboration. Where on the continuum of revision do our poems exist? Whom do we trust, if anyone, to be our Pound? We’ll explore at least 5-7 approaches to revision. Bring a fresh poem, a frustrated poem, and one question in relation to each, + a laptop, if you have one.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
TO REGISTER: Lighthouse Writers
MARCH
(Participate from where ever you are!)
TRADITIONAL FORMS, ECSTATIC ARRANGMENTS! (Part II)
(It is not necessary to have attended Part I in order to enjoy & learn from Part II)
An Online Poetry Writing Workshop
- Date: March 4 – April 22, 2018
- Times: Sundays, 1pm – 3:45pm, Mountain Time
- Technical Requirements: 1) the ability to send and receive email attachments in a word doc. format; 2) a built-in camera on your computer
Description: Join me, Sawnie Morris, in an exuberant exploration of poetic forms. We’ll read classic poems written in traditional forms, study our craft (including the historical origins of each form), and we’ll learn from poems by contemporary poets who are diversifying on the old and creating new and exciting hybrid forms. Each week we’ll meet together as a group – poets from across the country – to discuss the poems and prose-about-poems we’ve been reading, perhaps try our hand at a few in-class writing experiments, and share our own poems with one another in a generous, respectful, and informed workshop format. You’ll receive written comments on your poems from Sawnie, with the opportunity for a private, weekly, one-on-one session with her during “office hours.”
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
JUNE
DENVER, COLORADO
LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS WORKSHOP
LIT FEST 3 WORKSHOPS
Visual Aesthetics & the Field of the Poem
- Dates: June 11
- Times: 2-4pm
- Location: Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 1515 Race Street, Denver
Description: Part of what makes poetry a magical art is the poet’s ability to orchestrate language in a way that creates an unforgettable experience in a reader. Spacing and punctuation provide cues intrinsic to that orchestration. How might visual spacing and/or non-standard usage of punctuation further reveal a poem’s meanings? How might the field of the page heighten lyric understanding? We’ll consider an array of exciting possibilities available for the visual, percussive, and imagistic shaping of our poems. Bring paper, a favorite writing instrument, and the first draft of a poem – as well as your laptop.
The Many (& Often Hidden) Faces of the Collage Poem
- Dates: June 11
- Times: 4:30-6:30pm
- Location: Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 1515 Race Street, Denver
Description: Collage poems and the process that brings them into being are powering some of the most compelling of early 21st century poems. The word “collage” originates from the French, meaning “to stick, to bond, to glue.” According to critic Marjorie Perloff, “collage” may also refer idiomatically to a love affair, which is to say: when two different things are taken out of context and placed side by side, they may become a third, containing a multiplicity of paradoxical meanings. We’ll read and discuss contemporary examples of collage poems and in the time available make an experiential start toward writing and a few of our own. Bring paper, pen, and lap-top.
The Lightning Field of the Prose Poem:
For Intrepid Prose Writers & Audacious Poets
- Dates: June 12
- Times: 2-4pm
- Location: Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 1515 Race Street, Denver
Description: Some prose poems lean into narrative, some into the whirl of the lyric, but each provides an astonishment of precision and concision, of “luminous details” (Pound), and the meeting of images in the compressed space of verbal experience. Think of the surface of Agnes Martin’s grid – on the one hand – and a lush pond, with its hidden depths, on the other. Think of the jeweled interior of an emerald and a stone labyrinth in the desert. What appears to be ordinary speech has the potential to wake us into unexpected dimensions, word by word, line by line, sentence by sentence.
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
JULY
TAOS WRITERS CONFERENCE, JULY 13
The Many (& Often Hidden) Faces of the Collage Poem
- Dates: July 13
- Times: 10:00am–5:00pm
- Location: SOMOS of Taos, (Taos, New Mexico)
Description: Collage poems and the process that brings them into being are powering some of the most compelling of early 21st century poems. The word “collage” originates from the French, meaning “to stick, to bond, to glue.” According to critic Marjorie Perloff, “collage” may also refer idiomatically to a love affair, which is to say: when two different things are taken out of context and placed side by side, they may become a third, containing a multiplicity of paradoxical meanings. We’ll read and discuss contemporary examples of collage poems and in the time available make a start toward writing a few of our own. I’ll be contacting registered participants during the week ahead of our workshop regarding what to bring and how to prepare.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: CONTACT US
TAOS WRITERS CONFERENCE, JULY 14
Revision, Revision, Revision
- Dates: July 14
- Times: 9:00am–Noon
- Location: SOMOS of Taos, (Taos, New Mexico)
Description: “What we see, we see, and seeing is changing,” wrote Adrienne Rich. The poet Brenda Hillman revises her poems by hand 100 times before transcribing to the computer. Alan Ginsberg sung in praise of “first thoughts, best thoughts.” Ezra Pound revised T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland to such a degree that the resulting poem approximates near-collaboration. Where on the continuum of revision do our poems exist? Whom do we trust, if anyone, to be our Pound? We’ll explore at least 5-7 approaches to revision. Bring a fresh poem, one question in relation to that poem, and a lap-top, if you have one.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: CONTACT US
SEPTEMBER
A POETRY READING AT NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
FEATURING SAWNIE MORRIS AND CATHERINE STRISIK
• Date: Friday, September 14, 2018
• Time: 7:30pm
• Location: New Mexico State University, Health and Human Sciences Annex Auditorium, Room 101A
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
OCTOBER
Autumn Poetry Writing Workshop
- Dates: October 10-16, 2018
- Times: 10:30am-1:30pm
- Location: Ranchos de Taos, NM
Description: The pleasure, challenge, and – ultimately – the never-entirely-foreseeable magic of this weeklong poem-a-day writing adventure exists in the opportunity for mutual focus — and through focus, an opening. The word “focus” derives from “hearth,” which takes its root from the Indo-European word for “fire.” Together we will gather our individual experience, our word hoard, our earth, air, water, & fire – and bring them to bear over seven days and nights of surrender to the poetic forces that wake up our lives. We’ll meet for 3 hours each day – for 7 days – to write, to share poems written within the previous twenty-four hours, & to discuss the craft with which we navigate the sacred space of emotion that is a poem.
Inspirational packets containing a range of texts & prompts will be offered each day to spark the next day’s poem (you’ll be free to use the prompts or not). Responses to participant poems will be provided in a generous, respectful, and informed workshop format. At the end of the week, we’ll gather for a simple meal to honor the poetry of our autumnal harvest.
Each participant is eligible for a private session with Sawnie during the week of our workshop. Writers at all levels of experience are welcome.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
SawnieMorris.com 