How do we as writers open ourselves to new possibilities and practices? How do we avoid ruts, or climb out of them once we're there? 

In this generative exercise, poet Sarah Sadie guides participants through a powerful and fun series of writing exercises that invite us to listen...to ourselves, to each other, and to the wider world. Somewhere, new possibilities await us...let's find them together. 

In this highly interactive session, there will be time for writing, reflection, sharing and conversation. A pdf handout will be shared at the end of the workshop as a free gift for all participants. 

Zoom Registration
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/PB5CjntGRTe8GKKfoGensQ

Sarah Sadie believes community needs creativity and creativity needs community, and we all need new stories. She’s a poet, writer, and creative visionary who lives on a continental divide in a small town in Wisconsin. Winner of the Lorine Niedecker Prize, the Posner Prize and a Pushcart Prize, she grows tomatoes in buckets and teaches and facilitates workshops and classes with the aim of helping creatives find their new stories and next steps. Her poetry has been published widely and collected into five books including a letter press edition from Red Dragonfly Press. Online, she can be found holding An Inviting Space on Substack where she shares reflections, invitations and prompts with her readers and hosts an ever growing circle of creative practitioners, artists and writers. https://aninvitingspace.substack.com   

Was your family involved in a major event? Did a notorious crime/disaster or a famous event take place in your hometown? Is the Beast of Bray Road your second cousin once removed? This two-part workshop will explore documentary approaches to true (& mostly true!) subjects in poetry, including ways to use outside sources and even visual elements to your work. We will look at examples from a wide range of approaches, then creating our own docupoetic poetic narratives.

Part 2
Zoom Registration
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/wBs5OQk8R_aTynuMcZdeMg

Seth Copeland grew up in southwest Oklahoma and currently lives in Milwaukee with his wife and two kitties. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poet Lore, Painted Bride Quarterly, Kestrel, Dream Pop, Yes Poetry, The Shore, South Dakota Review, and Yalobusha Review, among others. While finishing his PhD at UWM, he served as Poetry Editor and then as Managing Editor for Cream City Review. In addition, he has edited the online journal petrichor since starting it in 2016. He is the Chapbook Coordinator for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, a co-host of the Tabi Po reading series, and currently a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Was your family involved in a major event? Did a notorious crime/disaster or a famous event take place in your hometown? Is the Beast of Bray Road your second cousin once removed? This two-part workshop will explore documentary approaches to true (& mostly true!) subjects in poetry, including ways to use outside sources and even visual elements to your work. We will look at examples from a wide range of approaches, then creating our own docupoetic poetic narratives.

Part 1
Zoom Registration
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/gK1SCqoiRFCkXSXNIJjEHA

Seth Copeland grew up in southwest Oklahoma and currently lives in Milwaukee with his wife and two kitties. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poet Lore, Painted Bride Quarterly, Kestrel, Dream Pop, Yes Poetry, The Shore, South Dakota Review, and Yalobusha Review, among others. While finishing his PhD at UWM, he served as Poetry Editor and then as Managing Editor for Cream City Review. In addition, he has edited the online journal petrichor since starting it in 2016. He is the Chapbook Coordinator for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, a co-host of the Tabi Po reading series, and currently a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

In this workshop, we will practice mixing our “home” languages with standard English in poems. A “home” language might be a mother tongue other than English, a regional dialect of English, a particular register of English (perhaps generational or professional), and/or special family/community expressions that we feel root us and express where we come from or where we feel a sense of belonging. Together we will read and discuss some published poems that employ language in these ways. Then we will do a poetry writing exercise using individual and community word grids. Limit 100 participants.

Register on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/D_oqbXLASOO1M7f1cLKTFg

Brenda Cárdenas

Current Wisconsin Poet Laureate Brenda Cárdenas has authored Trace (Red Hen Press, 2023), winner of the 2023 Society of Midland Authors Award for Poetry and silver winner of Foreword Review’s Indie Poetry Prize; Boomerang (Bilingual Press); and three chapbooks. She also co-edited the anthologies Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance and Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest. Her poems and essays have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Braving the Body, Latinx Poetics: The Art of Poetry, Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Anthology, among others. Cárdenas has also enjoyed collaborating with musicians, composers, visual artists, and choreographers. She is Professor Emerita of English at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee. 

This class is meant to offer a follow-up conversation to the recent Mary Oliver and the Art of Observation class. In this session we will concentrate our time on coming to understand Oliver's poetry by reading and understanding selections from her remarkably self-reflective and always poetically succinct short essays taken from a variety of collections including Long Life, Winter Hours, Upstream and Owls and Other Fantasies. We will also offer time for prompt responses. Limited to the first 100 registrants.

Register for this workshop on Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/TIydnrupTgaGkR7S5cz1fQ

Troy has been following the poetry of Mary Oliver since his time earning an M.A. in poetry and teaching environmental literature at the college-level. He later went through the sustainability leadership course at Edgewood in Madison and created there On the Yahara Writing Center, a small education business that offers a variety of writing classes including The Mary Oliver Society, The Poetry of Wellbeing, and other Eco Poet Pioneers classes, as well as establishing a variety of writing and book groups around Madison. He has recently co-created Riverside Botanicals, a supplement small business combining botanical/floral design for individuals and events, as well as nature-centered, hands-on classes. 

Mary Oliver and the Art of Observation in Nature: in this class, we'll try to explore the intimate and dynamic relationship between the observer nature poet and nature itself. We'll regularly find in Mary Oliver's poetry that dedicated experience in nature is paramount to her life and work, and that it is there, in nature, that she finds expression of celebration, gratitude and often temporary resolution to self-doubt or other challenges. Part of the art of observation in nature is self-understanding and as a means towards self-help.

Register for this workshop on Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMoc-qopz8pH93bDlAXVunGDLIHn3eF4lLS

Troy has been following the poetry of Mary Oliver since his time earning an M.A. in poetry and teaching environmental literature at the college-level. He later went through the sustainability leadership course at Edgewood in Madison and created there On the Yahara Writing Center, a small education business that offers a variety of writing classes including The Mary Oliver Society, The Poetry of Wellbeing, and other Eco Poet Pioneers classes, as well as establishing a variety of writing and book groups around Madison. He has recently co-created Riverside Botanicals, a supplement small business combining botanical/floral design for individuals and events, as well as nature-centered, hands-on classes. 

Ed Bok Lee gave a presentation to WFOP members on some of the criteria he used when judging the 2023 Muse Contest. Lee referenced Gregory Orr's article, "Four Temperaments and the Forms of Poetry." In this extension of that popular presentation, Lee will dive more deeply into how he thinks about a poem in that very specific context—with his own poetry, as well as other's work. Join us for this reading/craft talk and Q and A.

Register for this workshop on Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsc-ugrzkoEtMeh6QU0nYbPIN-0itc6DGS

Ed Bok Lee is the author of three books of poetry, including Whorled and Mitochondrial Night, as well as short stories, plays, and essays. Lee’s work has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese. Other honors include an American Book Award, a Minnesota Book Award, a PEN/Open Book Award, and numerous grants and fellowships. As a literary translator, he is a recipient of the 49th Modern Korean Literature Translation Grand Prize in Poetry. He teaches part-time in Fine Arts at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.

This workshop is a reprisal of 2023’s workshop and is designed for emerging poets who are using their instincts and love of poetry to create their own even though they may not have studied the art of poetry writing. This does not mean that experienced poets may not participate as long as they understand that the focus will be on the emerging poets.

Joan will lead participants through activities she used when teaching poetry writing, selecting writing exercises that produced the greatest variety of original material. Then, using the results of those exercises, participants will create drafts with an emphasis on what the poem wants to be, not what the poet wants the poem to be.

During the two weeks after the first session, participants can choose to send Joan one of those drafts for an individual writing lesson in which she will give suggestions for directions they could take in order to blend what the poem wants with what the poet wants! Then those who would like to do so may send the results of their revision back to Joan for feedback in the second session.

For recent workshops, there has been a random drawing before this second session, but for teaching emerging poets, Joan will choose the poems that offer lessons that will be most useful to other participants and let those poets know so they can be ready to read their poems and briefly explain the process they went through to turn the exercise material into a draft and then into a poem. Depending on how many people submit drafts for individualized instruction, she hopes to also have time in the second session for additional participants to respond and share what they have written and learned.

Joan Wiese Johannes believes Thornton Wilder was right when he had the Stage Manager in Our Town say that only poets and saints truly appreciate life while they are living it. Although not a candidate for sainthood, Joan identifies as a poet and enjoys combining her skills as a poet and a teacher to create informative and entertaining workshops. State Secondary Teacher of the Year, winner of the Chisholm Award from the WI Council of Teachers of English for the Outstanding Teaching of English, a Kohl Fellowship recipient, and local Teacher of the Year, Joan was one of the advisors of a nationally recognized literary/art journal and under her guidance, her students consistently won state poetry writing contests. Since retiring, she has taught workshops in poetry, prose, and Native American-style flute. A member of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets for almost 40 years, Joan served as a regional vice president, co-edited the 2012 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar with her husband Jeffrey, and currently serves as co-chairman of the Triad Contest. She has four poetry chaps/books, including the sold-out Sensible Shoes, 2009 winner of the Alabama Poetry Society's chapbook competition, Myopic Nerve, Motherless Child, and He Thought the Periodic Table Was a Portrait of God, available from Finishing Line Press. Winner of the 2011 regional poetry award from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Society, Joan has also received awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin People and Ideas, Peninsula Pulse, Free Verse, and English Journal; has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including  Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, LOCKDOWN 2020, Allegro & Adagio Dance Anthology, and Last Walk: Using Poetry to Grieve and Remember our Pets. Joan has also published a crown of sonnets, Happily Ever After, whimsically illustrated by her husband Jeffrey, as well as creative nonfiction, magazine articles, and musical compositions for the Native American-style flute. She lives in Port Edwards, WI.

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop 1, May 16: Craft talk.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEuceGoqj8pGN0pFC_-0NNH8dCpimgmlELc

Workshop 2, June 13: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUld-ihrD8jG9cz3GQMjQOUOSo8gNZlq-RB#/registration

This workshop is a reprisal of 2023’s workshop and is designed for emerging poets who are using their instincts and love of poetry to create their own even though they may not have studied the art of poetry writing. This does not mean that experienced poets may not participate as long as they understand that the focus will be on the emerging poets.

Joan will lead participants through activities she used when teaching poetry writing, selecting writing exercises that produced the greatest variety of original material. Then, using the results of those exercises, participants will create drafts with an emphasis on what the poem wants to be, not what the poet wants the poem to be.

During the two weeks after the first session, participants can choose to send Joan one of those drafts for an individual writing lesson in which she will give suggestions for directions they could take in order to blend what the poem wants with what the poet wants! Then those who would like to do so may send the results of their revision back to Joan for feedback in the second session.

For recent workshops, there has been a random drawing before this second session, but for teaching emerging poets, Joan will choose the poems that offer lessons that will be most useful to other participants and let those poets know so they can be ready to read their poems and briefly explain the process they went through to turn the exercise material into a draft and then into a poem. Depending on how many people submit drafts for individualized instruction, she hopes to also have time in the second session for additional participants to respond and share what they have written and learned.

Joan Wiese Johannes believes Thornton Wilder was right when he had the Stage Manager in Our Town say that only poets and saints truly appreciate life while they are living it. Although not a candidate for sainthood, Joan identifies as a poet and enjoys combining her skills as a poet and a teacher to create informative and entertaining workshops. State Secondary Teacher of the Year, winner of the Chisholm Award from the WI Council of Teachers of English for the Outstanding Teaching of English, a Kohl Fellowship recipient, and local Teacher of the Year, Joan was one of the advisors of a nationally recognized literary/art journal and under her guidance, her students consistently won state poetry writing contests. Since retiring, she has taught workshops in poetry, prose, and Native American-style flute. A member of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets for almost 40 years, Joan served as a regional vice president, co-edited the 2012 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar with her husband Jeffrey, and currently serves as co-chairman of the Triad Contest. She has four poetry chaps/books, including the sold-out Sensible Shoes, 2009 winner of the Alabama Poetry Society's chapbook competition, Myopic Nerve, Motherless Child, and He Thought the Periodic Table Was a Portrait of God, available from Finishing Line Press. Winner of the 2011 regional poetry award from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Society, Joan has also received awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin People and Ideas, Peninsula Pulse, Free Verse, and English Journal; has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including  Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, LOCKDOWN 2020, Allegro & Adagio Dance Anthology, and Last Walk: Using Poetry to Grieve and Remember our Pets. Joan has also published a crown of sonnets, Happily Ever After, whimsically illustrated by her husband Jeffrey, as well as creative nonfiction, magazine articles, and musical compositions for the Native American-style flute. She lives in Port Edwards, WI.

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop 1, May 16: Craft talk.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEuceGoqj8pGN0pFC_-0NNH8dCpimgmlELc#/registration

Workshop 2, June 13: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUld-ihrD8jG9cz3GQMjQOUOSo8gNZlq-RB#/registration

In times of distress and upheaval, we need self-care practices that keep us grounded in our daily lives, and present to the actual world. As James Crews will show in his reading, poetry does just that, allowing us to slow down, and offer what is perhaps the greatest kindness to ourselves: listening to that deepest part of us which we might call the soul, the spirit, or the true self. With its close attention to sensory detail, poetry can keep us in the moment and in our bodies, so we might walk with whatever grief we feel, more fully embrace bursts of joy when they come, or tap into a sense of awe for the simple, everyday wonders we find all around us. 

As a professional speaker, reader, and workshop leader, James Crews has touched audiences all over the world with his message of healing and hope through the power of writing. He is available for keynotes, classroom visits, and other speaking engagements, and offers workshops with his husband, organic farmer, Brad Peacock, on a variety of subjects including kindness, community, LGBTQ issues, and preserving our planet.

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop, March 14
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApc-ivrj0oH9CRFtmJ089Jh07Dd_Ewddel

An exploration of ekphrasis, poetry that has a conversation with art.  We'll look at some sample poem painting pairings and discover some of the techniques and approaches that can be used in writing an ekphrastic poem.  Then we'll look at a painting and write a poem of our own.

Barbara Crooker is the author of nine full-length books of poetry, including Some Glad Morning (Pitt Poetry Series). Radiance, her first book, won the 2005 Word Press First Book Award and was finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize; Line Dance, her second book, won the 2009 Paterson Award for Excellence in Literature; and The Book of Kells won the Best Poetry Book of 2019 Award from Writing by the Sea.  Her writing has received a number of awards, including the 2004 WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the 2003 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships. Her work appears in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and The Bedford Introduction to Literature.  She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Moulin à Nef, Auvillar, France, and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Ireland.  Garrison Keillor has read her poems over sixty times on The Writer’s Almanac, and she has read her poetry all over the country, including The Festival of Faith and Writing,  Poetry at Round top, The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival,  Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium, and the Library of Congress.

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop 1, November 9: Craft talk.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sd-2vpz0uHtGSzDtgpPB-MzKVROShvbdT

Workshop 2, December 12: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctdemgqTgqGdUNdQuAaTjjEGBvwazRb5JO

An exploration of ekphrasis, poetry that has a conversation with art.  We'll look at some sample poem painting pairings and discover some of the techniques and approaches that can be used in writing an ekphrastic poem.  Then we'll look at a painting and write a poem of our own.

Barbara Crooker is the author of nine full-length books of poetry, including Some Glad Morning (Pitt Poetry Series). Radiance, her first book, won the 2005 Word Press First Book Award and was finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize; Line Dance, her second book, won the 2009 Paterson Award for Excellence in Literature; and The Book of Kells won the Best Poetry Book of 2019 Award from Writing by the Sea.  Her writing has received a number of awards, including the 2004 WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the 2003 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships. Her work appears in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and The Bedford Introduction to Literature.  She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Moulin à Nef, Auvillar, France, and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Ireland.  Garrison Keillor has read her poems over sixty times on The Writer’s Almanac, and she has read her poetry all over the country, including The Festival of Faith and Writing,  Poetry at Round top, The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival,  Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium, and the Library of Congress.

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop 1, November 9: Craft talk.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sd-2vpz0uHtGSzDtgpPB-MzKVROShvbdT

Workshop 2, December 7: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctdemgqTgqGdUNdQuAaTjjEGBvwazRb5JO

In this chapbook workshop we'll talk about the different ways to organize chapbooks (should there be a thematic link? how to build? ordering poems?), how chapbook readers *might be* different than other kinds of readers, a brief history of the chapbook, and the nitty gritty of submitting your work. Wherever you are in your writing journey, join us to think about whether the chapbook (poetry, prose, or hybrid) might be a project for you. If you have a group of work that you're already thinking of as a collection, please bring it—we can shuffle pages and consider options. Bring your questions!

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqdeyurjgsGtVbigT-6Z0toq6OGSzTL4n5

Let's write poems about objects, whether ordinary or extraordinary. Even the things of everyday hold mystery and power. Perhaps it’s the sparrow that is inadvertently smacked into your window or perhaps it’s something as simple as a bobby pin or that fresh tomato from your garden. Maybe it’s that key you don’t (yet) know what it opens. Use your imagination and the power of words to find an opening for you and your writing. It's especially important to use your senses when writing about objects. 

Bring a pen/pencil and favorite notebook. Bring an object or two to inspire you. Bring your willingness to explore and write. 

Led by Karla Huston, author of Ripple, Scar, and Story: Kelsay Books, 2022. Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017-2018. Learn more about her on her website. 

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop 1, January 19: Craft talk, poetry examples.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvceGrqTktHNL-0O_b6QgxXYb1DN3vAEky

Workshop 2, February 23: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtcOqhqT8oE9wKBsRXtEr4Xd5eil_7MLc6

Let's write poems about objects, whether ordinary or extraordinary. Even the things of everyday hold mystery and power. Perhaps it’s the sparrow that is inadvertently smacked into your window or perhaps it’s something as simple as a bobby pin or that fresh tomato from your garden. Maybe it’s that key you don’t (yet) know what it opens. Use your imagination and the power of words to find an opening for you and your writing. It's especially important to use your senses when writing about objects. 

Bring a pen/pencil and favorite notebook. Bring an object or two to inspire you. Bring your willingness to explore and write. 

Led by Karla Huston, author of Ripple, Scar, and Story: Kelsay Books, 2022. Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017-2018. Learn more about her on her website. 

Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.

Workshop 1, January 19: Craft talk, poetry examples.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvceGrqTktHNL-0O_b6QgxXYb1DN3vAEky

Workshop 2, February 23: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtcOqhqT8oE9wKBsRXtEr4Xd5eil_7MLc6