When we're faced with big emotions, it can be difficult to find the words. Love, loss, fury, awe, and grief—such feelings can be hard to describe, much less express in poetry. In this workshop, we will explore formal constraint as one technique for generating language. Our definition of form will be expansive, from the etymologies and morphologies of individual words, to syllabics, to traditional forms like the sonnet and pantoum. We will discuss some famous and not-so-famous poems that employ formal constraint to spark composition. We will then practice putting feelings into form by undertaking up to three writing exercises. The workshop should be helpful to beginning and advanced writers alike. Bring paper and pencil and any feelings looking for a form.

Free workshop. Please register on Zoom in advance. Limit 100 participants.

Katy Lederer

Katy Lederer is the author of four books of poetry and a memoir. In her long-anticipated fourth poetry collection, The Engineers, Katy Lederer draws on the newfangled languages of reproductive technology, genetic engineering, and global warming to ask the age-old questions: What is “the self”? What is “the other”? How to reproduce “one’s self”?

Katy Lederer

Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in the American Poetry Review, the Boston Review, and the Paris Review, among many other publications. She has also reported on energy and climate change for n+1, the New York Times, and the New Yorker online. A recipient of fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell, she has taught poetry workshops and climate change writing at Columbia University, Fordham University, Barnard College, and the New School. katylederer.com