Upcoming Zoom Workshops

WFOP’s mission is to promote poets and poetry in Wisconsin. To support our mission, WFOP creates, coordinates and hosts regular Zoom workshops as outreach to members and non-members.

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Featured

Past Workshops

Katy Lederer
October 2026
Turning Feelings into Form

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 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 discuss some famous and not-so-famous poems that employ formal constraint to spark composition. We 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. Led by Katy Lederer, author of the long-anticipated fourth collection of poetry The Engineers and three previous books of poetry and memoir.

Penny Harter
February 2026
Haibun

Haibun is a centuries-old Japanese literary form that interweaves prose with haiku, distilling moments of travel, memory, and reflection into vivid, layered narratives. First emerging in the 17th century as poetic travel journals, haibun has since grown into a dynamic genre embraced by writers across the globe. Its hallmark lies in the interplay between concise prose passages and luminous haiku, resonating with both readers and writers. Join poet and teacher Penny Harter—renowned practitioner of haibun—in a workshop designed for English-language poets. She will guide participants in exploring how this traditional form can be adapted, expanded, and enlivened for contemporary voices.

Circling the Pine
Sample Haibun

2024

May & June 2024 - Joan Wiese Johannes, Releasing Your Inner Poet, Part 1 and Part 2
March 2024 - James Crews, The Transformative Power of Poetry as Self-Care