Poetry
October 3-24, 2026
Tiered Tuition
$250-$600 Reserve My Spot
About the Offering
Saturdays on October 3rd, 10th, 17th, & 24th at 4pm to 6pm (Eastern)
Why do we return to certain themes and people in our poems? How can we leverage these obsessions to our advantage?
Poetry has always been the language of urgency. Formal devices, including the pantoum, are a powerful way to step out of our comfort zone and into our fevered frenzy. Throughout this class, we’ll ask ourselves: What happens on the page when we tame our hungers, urges, and thirsts? How do certain forms allow us to return to our subjects of never-ending fixation in new and wild ways?
In this workshop, we’ll examine the above questions through the lens of formal poetry.
From the pantoum to the triolet to the sestina, we’ll inhabit a series of contained forms, then work against them. What happens when we test our subjects of obsession against formal constraints? What happens when we let them go? We’ll ponder the answers, unleash the demons of our preoccupations, and rein them back in. We’ll have a fantastic time!
The forms we’ll experiment with can be challenging, so bring an open mind, heart, and humor.
Materials Needed
No specific materials needed for this offering.
About the Instructor/Moderator
Maria Nazos grew up in Athens, Greece, and Joliet, Illinois. Kaveh Akbar picked her work as a winner of the Palette Poetry Love & Eros Prize. Her poetry, essays, and translations have been published in Literary Hub, The New Yorker, Poets & Writers, North American Review, The Hopkins Review, TriQuarterly, World Literature Today, and elsewhere.
She’s the author of the poetry collection PULSE (Omnidawn, 2026) and the translation collection The Slow Horizon that Breathes (World Poetry Books, 2023) by the Greek poet Dimitra Kotoula, longlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award.
Maria has worked almost every job imaginable, including as a whale-watching boat attendant, table dancer, teacher, barista, sunglasses salesperson, bartender, and, probably, the worst waitress in the entire history of the Eastern Seaboard. If she spilled Pinot Noir on you, she apologizes.
View all offerings
