Summer Workshop Program 2024
Our new Tiered Tuition System asks you to choose one of the following tuition levels:
$900 - Sustaining Level
$800 - Standard Level
$700 - Subsidized Level
$500 - Student/Teacher Level
Please reflect on your social and economic position before choosing a tuition level at checkout.
For more information on our new Tiered Tuition System, please click here.
In this workshop, we’ll attempt to understand what is meant by the terms “lyric essay,” “short-short,” and “prose poem.” Often, people suggest that writing in these shorter prose forms is liberating, but what exactly does that mean? Does the lack of line breaks serve a purpose or is it arbitrary for some prose poems? Does the shortness put a strain on the possibility of a narrative? Can a subject be fully explored in such short bursts? What is gained or lost with the addition of line breaks? These are some of the aesthetic ideas we will grapple with during this workshop as we read practitioners of the form as well as write in the form ourselves. We will write a new poem inspired by examples and prompts given during the day. We will then workshop new work in subsequent classes. Participants will receive instructor and peer feedback daily.
Biography
Oliver de la Paz is the author and editor of seven books including The Diaspora Sonnets, which was a winner of the 2023 New England Book Award, and longlisted for the National Book Award. He is the Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA, and teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the Low Residency MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University.
