About the Workshop

Ekphrastic poetry is a written response to a visual painting, photograph, dance, sculpture, advertisement, child’s drawing, or performance. An ekphrastic poem begins with inspiration from another piece of art and with the understanding that art is created dialogically. We will engage two-dimensional and three-dimensional images, using the artwork as a prompt for our own original writing. We will explore the possibilities of performance in film, music, and dance as modes of inspiring the generation of written work. We will examine prompts given to artists of visual media and look for parallels to the writing craft. Finally, we will produce our own original written works which we will share during the workshop.

About the Instructor

Oliver de la Paz is the author and editor of several books including The Boy in the Labyrinth (U. Akron Press 2019) and The Diaspora Sonnets (Liveright Press 2023) which was long listed for the National Book Award. He is the Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross.