Poetry Chapbook Workshop

It is one thing to write poetry, but it is also important over time to wonder about what a collection of one's poems would look like, feel like, as a collection. Oftentimes, when one does collect one's poetry for a book, certain themes and preoccupations are found to repeat themselves, and these are the thematic materials that come to form the locus of a book, or, in this case, a chapbook, which is a small collection of poems. In this workshop, which will have two sessions - September 17 and October 15 - we are going to explore the genre of the chapbook. Each member will collect their poems for the purpose of a chapbook, and we will read the poems together as a chapbook. The length of the chapbook, for the purposes of this library workshop, should be 20-35 pages. Each member who signs up will email their chapbook to andrew.field@romi.gov, by October 1, and Andrew will send the chapbooks to the members who have signed up to read and annotate. 

This is a great chance for poets to chart the trajectory of their growth, to take stock of what they have written so far, and to think about larger questions related to theme, unity, diversity, coherence, incoherence, etc. which informs themselves and their poetic practices. And there will be food.