What's Old is New Again: An Interactive Poetry Workshop
Generate new poems by mining your archive of drafts of your work.
Have a poem that's dead in the water, but there's still something about it you love? A favorite line sacrificed during revision? Find yourself staring at a blank page? Are you blocked on new ideas? In this interactive workshop, we'll experiment with ways to breathe new life into old lines and get your creative juices flowing by harvesting your own past work.
Join Tamara Nicholl-Smith via Zoom for three hours that include generative exercises, in-workshop writing time, and opportunities to share your work so we can learn from each other. Whether you're stuck and need a way to get unstuck, or you want to transform lines you loved from unsuccessful poems into something new, this workshop offers practical techniques for mining your own archive.
This is a fundraiser workshop—all proceeds fund a scholarship(s) for CLA's Summer Writers Camp for Young Writers, grades 4-12. (A single scholarship costs $350; our goal is to raise funds for at least one full scholarship.)
Optional Prework: Bring a few lines you've written and love but couldn't make work—whether cut during revision or stuck in an unfinished draft. No time to prep? Come as you are with just a pen or keyboard in hand!
Biography of Tamara Nicholl-Smith
Ms. Nicholl-Smith is the winner of the Emerging Artist Grant from Catholic Literary Arts, with a two-year term beginning in April 2026. This program honors Catholic artists and writers whose careers exemplify the highest standards of literary and artistic achievement combined with a community-driven approach to literary citizenship.
Tamara Nicholl-Smith holds an MFA from the University of St. Thomas (Houston) and was a finalist for Houston Poet Laureate (2025–2027). Her forthcoming collection, Saints of Sleeping and Waking, will be published by Wiseblood Books in 2027.Her poetry has appeared on two Albuquerque city bus panels, one parking meter, numerous radio shows, a spoken-word classical piano fusion album, and in journals including America, Chronicles Magazine, Ekstasis, The Examined Life Journal, and Kyoto Journal. She is a contributing editor for The Better Part, a new print journal launching in 2026.
Her poem on Saint Jerome is part of the Gutenberg Bible display at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. A longtime member and popular instructor for Catholic Literary Arts, Tamara inaugurated the CLA School Visits by a Catholic Poet program in 2025 and coordinates the annual Sacred Poetry Contest, which brings together poets globally to respond to curated sacred art.
This class will include:
- Guided instruction/prompts
- In-class writing time
- Sharing and discussion of work created during the workshop
- Handouts
Generate new poems by mining your archive of drafts of your work.
Have a poem that's dead in the water, but there's still something about it you love? A favorite line sacrificed during revision? Find yourself staring at a blank page? Are you blocked on new ideas? In this interactive workshop, we'll experiment with ways to breathe new life into old lines and get your creative juices flowing by harvesting your own past work.
Join Tamara Nicholl-Smith via Zoom for three hours that include generative exercises, in-workshop writing time, and opportunities to share your work so we can learn from each other. Whether you're stuck and need a way to get unstuck, or you want to transform lines you loved from unsuccessful poems into something new, this workshop offers practical techniques for mining your own archive.
This is a fundraiser workshop—all proceeds fund a scholarship(s) for CLA's Summer Writers Camp for Young Writers, grades 4-12. (A single scholarship costs $350; our goal is to raise funds for at least one full scholarship.)
Optional Prework: Bring a few lines you've written and love but couldn't make work—whether cut during revision or stuck in an unfinished draft. No time to prep? Come as you are with just a pen or keyboard in hand!
Biography of Tamara Nicholl-Smith
Ms. Nicholl-Smith is the winner of the Emerging Artist Grant from Catholic Literary Arts, with a two-year term beginning in April 2026. This program honors Catholic artists and writers whose careers exemplify the highest standards of literary and artistic achievement combined with a community-driven approach to literary citizenship.
Tamara Nicholl-Smith holds an MFA from the University of St. Thomas (Houston) and was a finalist for Houston Poet Laureate (2025–2027). Her forthcoming collection, Saints of Sleeping and Waking, will be published by Wiseblood Books in 2027.Her poetry has appeared on two Albuquerque city bus panels, one parking meter, numerous radio shows, a spoken-word classical piano fusion album, and in journals including America, Chronicles Magazine, Ekstasis, The Examined Life Journal, and Kyoto Journal. She is a contributing editor for The Better Part, a new print journal launching in 2026.
Her poem on Saint Jerome is part of the Gutenberg Bible display at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. A longtime member and popular instructor for Catholic Literary Arts, Tamara inaugurated the CLA School Visits by a Catholic Poet program in 2025 and coordinates the annual Sacred Poetry Contest, which brings together poets globally to respond to curated sacred art.
This class will include:
- Guided instruction/prompts
- In-class writing time
- Sharing and discussion of work created during the workshop
- Handouts
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Highlights
- 3 hours
- Online
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