Poetry in Process: Creating Together will transform your writing practice with the goal of sustainable, deepening work. We will reframe our notions of “progress” so as to see that the eddies and torrents of creativity are all necessary and meaningful. We’ll combine craft discussions and workshop elements using a diverse and flexible framework. Additional readings and resources will be provided.

Poetry in Process: Creating Together will meet two hours per class, via Zoom. Each meeting will feature a short craft focus with related prompts, generative writing exercises, and a non-traditional workshop that emphasizes deep listening and response. We will engage in writing experiments designed to open your creative and intuitive floodgates with a focus on process as you work on your poetry in a supportive environment.

Course Structure

The course will take place on zoom from April through May on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month with virtual meetings on 4/13, 4/27, 5/11, 5/25. On the first and third Monday of each month, you will be invited to multi-genre literary salons featuring special guest speakers and generative write-ins, facilitated by poet and prose writer Dawn Angelicca Barcelona.

Full Course Schedule

Monday, April 3rd, 6-8p PT: Welcome Salon
Thursday, April 13th, 6-8p PT: Class #1
Wednesday, April 19th, 6-8p PT: Literary Salon featuring Lillian Howan and Grace Loh Prasad
Thursday, April 27th, 6-8p PT: Class #2
Monday, May 1st, 6-8pm PT: Literary Salon featuring Meg Hayertz
Thursday, May 11th, 6-8p PT: Class #3
Monday, May 15th, 6-8p PT: Literary Salon featuring Lisa Rosenberg
Thursday, May 25th, 6-8p PT: Class #4
Monday, May 29th, 6-8p PT: Closing Salon and Student Reading

Cost

The full workshop cost is $450.00 which includes:

Four 2-hour classes (8 hours)
Five optional 2-hour literary salons (10 hours)
One 30-minute one-on-one consultation with Maw

About Your Instructor

Maw Shein Win is a Burmese American poet, editor, and educator who lives and teaches in the Bay Area. Her poetry chapbooks are Ruins of a glittering palace (SPA/Commonwealth Projects) and Score and Bone (Nomadic Press). Invisible Gifts: Poems was published by Manic D Press in 2018. She was a 2019 Visiting Scholar in the Department of English at UC Berkeley. Win is the first poet laureate of El Cerrito, California (2016 - 2018). Her full-length poetry collection Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn, 2020) was longlisted for the 2021 PEN America Open Book Award, nominated for a Northern California Book Award for Poetry, and shortlisted for the Golden Poppy Award. She often collaborates with visual artists, musicians, and other writers and was a Spring 2021 ARC Poetry Fellow at UC Berkeley. Win’s Process Note Series on periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics features poets and their process. She teaches in the MFA Program at the University of San Francisco and was recently selected as a 2023 YBCA 100 Honoree.

Learn more about Maw's work on her website.

Poetry in Process: Creating Together | Workshop, Salons, & Consultation