Poetry Intensive: Turns and Ends

September 21st, 2022 - October 20th, 2022

with Debby Bacharach

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Poetry comes from strong feelings, but it also comes from strong craft. This two-part intensive workshop will let you discover and practice craft techniques for surprise turns and vivifying endings. Emily Dickinson once said, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” These tools can help you discover that power.

The intensive includes two live 90-minute webinars, office hours, and weekly prompts. The recordings of the live sessions will be available for re-watching for 5 months after the course ends. 

Part 1, Turns
* What a turn is and how it differs from a line break
* Why a turn makes your poem more powerful
* Leaving room for the reader to make the turn with you
* The power of juxtaposition
* How to create turns using the shadow voice
* How to create turns using your own line bank

Part 2, Endings
*What does it mean to vivify? 
*Poetic endings as a threshold: throw down the gauntlet, resee all that has come before, the punch of paradox, a push over the edge, a curtain sweeps open 
*14 techniques to nail the threshold down

Notes

Who this workshop is for: This poetry craft workshop is for poets and fiction writers working on projects for adults and children.

Focus: Adult - Poetry - Poetry - Children's - Picture Books - Fiction -…

Group size: 60 writers

Submissions: There will be no professional feedback in this class. Participants are welcome to share exercises on the discussion boards for peer encouragements if they wish.

Fee

Members: $40; Non-members: $75

About Debby Bacharach

Debby Bacharach is the author of two full length poetry collections Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Publications, 2015) and has been a writing instructor for over thirty years. Her craft essay “Two Roads to the Ruins: The Dynamic Presence of White Space,” co-written with Dia Calhoun, will appear in The Writer’s Chronicle this fall.

Schedule:

Wednesday, September 21st, 8-9:30pm ET - live webinar
Wednesday, October 12th, 7:30-9:30pm ET - live webinar (includes 30 min of office hours)
Weekly: writing exercises, discussion board office hours

*live webinars will be recorded and made available for 5 months after the intensive ends