24PearlStreet Workshops and Events
“O let me, please”: How (& Why) to Write the Sexiest Poems of Your Life — LIVE via ZOOM: 6pm-9pm (Eastern Time) on August 6th —
Reflecting on the writing of sex, Melissa Febos says, “When something seems difficult, in writing and in life, we tend to make rules around it.” And just as there are a myriad of cultural norms around sex, there are a million rules about how to write it, too. But rules were made to be broken by poets—or re-invented on our own terms—and in this generative class we will read and write poems aimed at discovering the ways that writing about sex can allow us to access not just joy or love, but also humor, grief, playfulness, the sacred, and even our deepest sense of rage.
Regardless of gender, age, or sexuality, writing about sex offers each of us a chance to reclaim the stories of our bodies on the page. For beginners and experienced poets alike, this class is for anyone who wants to take that big embodied leap in a space of safety, understanding, and shared respect for the tenderness it takes to go there.
Participants will generate fresh poems and receive feedback on work drafted during the workshop.
Biography
Keetje Kuipers
is the author of three books of poems, all from BOA Editions: Beautiful in the Mouth (2010), which was chosen by Thomas Lux as the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, The Keys to the Jail (2014), and All Its Charms (2019), which includes poems honored by publication in both The Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry anthologies. Keetje’s poetry and prose have appeared in The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, and over a hundred other magazines. Keetje has been a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, the Katharine Bakeless Nason Fellow in Poetry at Bread Loaf, the Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College, and the recipient of multiple residency fellowships, including PEN Northwest’s Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency. She lives with her wife and children in Montana, where she is Editor of Poetry Northwest. Her fourth book, Lonely Women Make Good Lovers, which was awarded the Isabella Gardner Award, will be published by BOA Editions in spring 2025.
