For the Fall 2021 term, we're offering a mix of virtual and in-person classes. Although we are still primarily virtual, you will find a smaller selection of in-person seminars in the schedule. For more information about the Newberry’s virtual seminars, including a Zoom tutorial, please see our Virtual Seminars FAQ page. Registration opens on September 1st at 9am (Central time). Registration will take place through our online platform, Learning Stream.

Seminar Description

This workshop is designed to get you thinking about new ways to write poetry. Over the course of the seminar, we’ll encounter a range of methods for writing poems—some experimental, some traditional. And we’ll practice these processes ourselves, identifying what makes poems do what they do while acquiring tools for crafting our own imaginative works. Alongside exercises and plenty of feedback to get you inspired and thinking about writing in new ways, we’ll spend a good deal of time workshopping each other’s work.

Four sessions. Registration – $195

Toby Altman is the author of two books, Discipline Park (Wendy's Subway, 2022) and Arcadia, Indiana (Plays Inverse, 2017). He holds a PhD in English from Northwestern University and an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He currently holds a 2021-22 Fellowship in Poetry from the NEA.

Materials List

Required:

• Digital Course Packet.

First Reading:

• Excerpts from Day Planner, by Sara Mumolo, distributed electronically before seminar begins.