Breaking Through: A Generative Workshop for All with Marie Howe

Four Wednesdays, April 1-22, 6:30-9pm
$325, space limited, no application necessary
To register, call (212) 431-7920 or email classes@poetshouse.org

"Do you want to begin writing poetry for the first time? Or resume writing after a period of silence? Or write in a different way than you have been? Then register for this class. We'll experience some peaceful silence and practice receptivity. We'll also write together in class and read amazing poems written by other people. Employing syntax, diction, image and metaphor, we'll write poems that bring us somewhere we never thought to go. Imagine a new freedom: astonishment, the sound of ice cracking, joy." —Marie Howe

Marie Howe is the author of three books of poetry, including The Kingdom of Ordinary Time and What the Living Do. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

Writing Away from the Surface with Patricia Smith

Six Wednesdays, May 6-June 10, 6:30-9pm
$425, space limited, application required (see below)

"This workshop will be composed of discussion and exercises designed to write toward darkness, secrecy, trauma, regret and, eventually, insight. Few poets actually heed the advice to 'write what you know.' Instead, we scrape stories from the surface of our lives, while ignoring uncomfortable truths that we mistakenly believe have been paved over and forgotten. Writers are among the fortunate few who have access to the whole of their lives. This workshop will teach us not to be afraid of that blessing." —Patricia Smith

Patricia Smith is the author of five poetry collections, including Blood Dazzler, a 2008 National Book Award Finalist, and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection and winner of the Hurston/Wright Award in Poetry.

Application guidelines for Patricia Smith's workshop: Send three poems and a cover sheet with your name, address, email and phone number by Friday, April 3. No names should appear on the poems themselves. Applications must be received by or before the deadline. Applications may be emailed to classes@poetshouse.org or sent by mail to:

Poets House
594 Broadway, Suite 510
New York, NY 10012
Attn: Classes