Begins Wednesday, January 17th, 2024

Class will meet weekly on Wednesday nights via Zoom, 8:00PM - 9:30PM EST

Note: This class will skip February 7th (for AWP) and conclude on March 27th. 

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Taught by Janée J. Baugher, the author of the guidebook, The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction, as well as two full-length poetry collections, Coördinates of Yes and The Body’s Physics. To date, her books are collected in nearly 100 libraries worldwide, and she is an assistant editor at Boulevard.

Learn more about Janée in our Meet the Teaching Artist series.

Do you have a love for creating, revising, and editing poems? Are you looking for a safe, supportive community of poets in which to share work? Join us as we take poems apart so that we can put them back together again.

We’ll learn primary, secondary, and tertiary concerns for deep revision, the language necessary to be our own toughest critics, and strategies for publishing and assembling poetry collections. Completing weekly written feedback on your classmates’ poems will be expected.

This class is geared for writers who have ambitions to publish, teach, or attend an MFA program, as well as writers who simply wish to challenge themselves.

*Students will be reading and responding to each others' poems prior to each session.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Students will learn a better understanding of the principals of the poetic craft.
• Students will learn to evaluate their own poetry, and that of others, more objectively.
• Students will learn the primary, secondary, and tertiary concerns of critiquing poetry.
• Students will learn the steps of providing written feedback to peers.
• Students will learn the language of workshopping by way of the instructor’s critiquing lexicon.
  

COURSE EXPECTATIONS:

Each week students are expected to offer written feedback on their peers’ poems. Included with this class is a 75-word workshop lexicon that the instructor has created. Students are encouraged to learn those literary terms and use those terms in their written and oral assessments.

What to bring to the first class:

Two workshop-ready poems (1 to 2 pages in length). Submit poems that are works-in-progress and haven’t been previously published. Furthermore, please submit material that is truly workshop-ready. A poem that was composed last night, for example, is too nascent for critique.

Formatting requirements: typed in black ink, single-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman, with your first and last name on each page (as an option, also include your preferred pronouns).

TAKE THIS CLASS IF:

• You are familiar with contemporary poetry.
• You have established a revision process that works.
• You have written and revised at least 10 poems.
• You are open to receiving written and oral critique of their work from peers and the instructor.
• You are willing to offer written and oral critiques to their classmates.
  

TESTIMONIALS:

“Entertaining and knowledgeable.” -K.F., former student

“She’s the most professional writing teacher I’ve ever met.” -T.Z, former student 

“Her commitment and genuine care is clear for all to see.” -J.N., former student 

“In this class, I found a safe place to share poetry, while receiving honest feedback.” S.J., former student

“I am grateful for the balance of poetic knowledge and instinct with her scientific sensibilities.” J.A., former student

This class meets weekly via Zoom. Come prepared for a super fun class with live interaction on Zoom each week and plenty of writing, reading, and talking!

• Instructor: Janée J. Baugher
  
• Class Starts Wednesday, January 17th, 2024
  
• Class will meet weekly on Wednesday nights via Zoom, 8:00PM - 9:30PM EST 
• Note: This class will skip February 7th (for AWP) and conclude on March 27th.

Instructor Janée J. Baugher, MFA is the author of the guidebook, The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction, as well as two full-length poetry collections, Coördinates of Yes and The Body’s Physics. To date, her books are collected in nearly 100 libraries worldwide. A two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Baugher’s poems have been adapted for the stage and set to music at University of Cincinnati–Conservatory of Music, Contemporary Dance Theatre in Ohio, Florida’s Dance Now! Ensemble, University of North Carolina-Pembroke, and other places. Since 2000, she’s taught Poetry at University of Phoenix, Seattle Public Library, Sitka Fine Arts Camp, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and University of Washington–Experimental College, to name a few. Currently, she lives in Seattle and is an assistant editor at Boulevard.