Lony Haley-Nelson notes: “Wonder is valuable… because it leads us to learn and remember.” Using the language and vocabulary of myth, folklore, science, and natural history as inspiration, this generative workshop will help you jump-start the blank page in front of you. We’ll participate in several immersion ideas for poems and journaling (some outdoors, weather permitting) to help you find new ways to revitalize your writing. Our time will be divided into composing drafts; chatting about various myths, articles, essays, and poems; and sharing your own poems in a workshop format. This class is ideal for both the beginner and someone wanting to refresh their poetry-writing strategies.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of three books of poetry: Lucky Fish, winner of the Hoffer Grand Prize for Prose and Independent Books; At the Drive-In Volcano; and Miracle Fruit. Her poems and essays have appeared in American Poetry Review, Quarterly West, New England Review, Ploughshares, FIELD, Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, and Tin House. She has been awarded an NEA Fellowship in poetry, the Glenna Luschia Prize from Prairie Schooner, and the Angoff Award from The Literary Review.