In this intermediate workshop, students will play with form as a way of generating new poems. They will experiment with contemporary takes on pantoums, haibuns, ghazals, and sestinas, as well as engage with image and text, with the epistolary, with ritual poems, tarot card poems, documentary poems, and more. By investigating the power of form and constraint, students will find the best structures for their poems.

The poets we will look to as examples and for inspiration include Victoria Chang, Jorie Graham, Ilya Kaminsky, Tyehimba Jess, Patricia Smith, Layli Long Soldier, Ocean Vong, Terrance Hayes, and many others.