Expand your poems and have fun by writing about the visual arts.
Find new ways to enter your drafts and deepen your revisions by writing poems about the visual arts (ekphrastic poems). We’ll read and discuss a variety of ekphrastic poems to inspire your own writing and enhance your craft skills (line, image, repetition, point of view, etc.). You’ll find new ways to access common themes, explore new terrain, and braid two narratives to enrich your poems. Each week, with provided prompts, you’ll be encouraged to visit a local gallery/museum and write about an artwork that moves you. Students will read aloud drafts for feedback of general appreciation and using a writer-focused workshop process, we’ll replace opinions and invasive “fix-its” with specific feedback to best serve the poet and support them in revisions. This class is perfect for poets looking to deepen their own creative process, write about art, and enhance their skills with feedback and revision.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- To appreciate a wide range of ekphrastic poems
- To enhance your descriptive powers and build your craft skills (line, using image to build a coceit, POV, rhetorical devices)
- A variety of ways to engage with the visual arts/artists in your poems
- How to integrate feedback and approach revision with more excitement and curiosity
- How to provide feedback that is useful and respectful to other writers
Time requirements
- 30-60 minutes of reading and writing
Materials
- All reading materials will be provided.
Who should take this workshop?
- This workshop is designed for writers who want to focus on writing poems about artwork.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.