Who is this class for?

This online poetry workshop welcomes writers of all levels interested in writing poems about romantic love and desire. Whether you are an emerging poet or an experienced writer seeking new inspiration, this generative class invites you to wander the liminal spaces between adoration, longing, devotion, and loathing — writing poems led by your own psyche, your histories, and your curiosity.

What to expect:

To be human is to love and to seek love. To be a poet is to write about it — what it is, who we are without it, what we do to keep it, how we survive when it ends. In this six-week online poetry writing workshop, you will explore love, limerence, and liminality as both idea and experience. What do we uncover about ourselves when we are in love? When we are infatuated? What poetry exists in the space between desire and absence? How do we reconcile with heartbreak? And how do we write a great revenge poem?

This is a primarily generative poetry workshop — you will spend the majority of your time together creating new work. Each session will include reading and discussing poems by celebrated writers, responding to inspired prompts in timed writing increments, and optional verbal sharing. Along the way, you will explore a variety of poetic forms including elegy, aubade, erasure/blackout, ekphrastic, and epistle. The course also features two guest speakers — accomplished poets who write on love and limerence — who will share their revision strategies, early and recent drafts, and original prompts.

Students will receive limited, informal verbal feedback from the instructor and in the chat. The focus of this creative writing course is on generating new material, building confidence, and developing your poetic voice in community with other writers. All readings will be provided in a slideshow — no required textbook purchases.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will write 30+ new poem drafts by the end of the six-week session. Students will learn and practice techniques for revision. Students will practice reading and performing their work aloud. Students will practice writing in a variety of poetic forms including elegy, aubade, erasure/blackout, ekphrastic, and epistle. Students will develop confidence in community with other writers.

Readings

Readings may include poems by Sharon Olds, Vievee Francis, Edgar Kunz, Anne Sexton, Matthew Olzmann, Anne Carson, Kazim Ali, Jean Valentine, Danez Smith, Chen Chen, Ocean Vuong, Kendra DeColo, Margaret Atwood, Ada Limón, and many more. All readings will be provided by the instructor — no textbook purchases required.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 — June 2: In this opening session, we will discuss the structure of the class, introduce ourselves, and engage in brainstorming exercises before writing together in 15-minute increments. We will write poems inspired by writers like Sharon Olds and Vievee Francis and end the session with optional verbal sharing.

Week 2 — June 9: We will read poems together and respond to related prompts in 15-minute increments. Readings will include writers like Kendra DeColo and Margaret Atwood. We will pull fortunes and/or tarot cards as creative tools as we write and end the session with optional verbal sharing.

Week 3 — June 16: We will read poems together and respond to related prompts in 15-minute increments. Readings will include writers like Edgar Kunz and Matthew Olzmann. A guest speaker will join us to read, discuss avoiding sentimentality and cliché in writing on love and limerence, and provide an original prompt. Session ends with optional verbal sharing.

Week 4 — June 23: We will read poems together and respond to related prompts in 15-minute increments. Readings will include writers like Anne Carson and Kazim Ali. We will incorporate resources on color, flora, and fauna as we write and end the session with optional verbal sharing.

Week 5 — June 30: We will read poems together and respond to related prompts in 15-minute increments. Readings will include writers like Chen Chen and Anne Sexton. A guest speaker who writes poems on love or limerence will share revision strategies, an early draft and a recent draft of a poem, and provide a writing prompt and a revision prompt to try in class.

Week 6 — July 7: In our final session, we will write together and share early and recent versions of our own poems, learn additional revision strategies, and practice using them. The last 45 minutes of class will be devoted to sharing work and a Q&A with the instructor on submitting and publishing.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Students will read a body of poems that revolve around love, limerence, and liminality by acclaimed and emerging poets.
• Students will come away with 30+ new poem drafts reflecting a variety of forms and styles.
• Students will develop their poetic voice and use it in service of their writing.
• Students will learn revision strategies and practice revising one of their own poems.
• Students will engage in conversation with a well-known guest writer who writes on love and limerence and learn some of their revision strategies.
• Students will gain confidence reading and sharing their work in a supportive community of writers.

TESTIMONIALS:

“Joan’s 6 week class was great! She provided a wide variety of readings and unique writing prompts each class which made it easy to generate new writing. She also gave ample opportunity to share our work in a supportive environment. Her comments and reactions to our first drafts were always encouraging. Joan has a friendly competency about her that made the class relaxed and engaging. Look forward to future classes with her!“
Nancy Murphy

“I was so fortunate to be able to take a generative poetry writing course with Joan Kwon Glass. Joan led a wonderful, dynamic discussion each week, provided thoughtful, insightful feedback on poems drafted during the course, and created a syllabus full of inspiring prompts and poems to spark new work. I hope to take another class with her -soon!” -Marceline White

“I have had a broad range of experience with all kinds of classes, programs, and collaborations where everyone brings something personally important to the table to make progress on. You provided a space that opened up more and more every session, and I believe this is in part due to the universal respect you gave each and every one of our works. You smoothly identified what each poem was asking for and went beyond to foster new possibilities for us as poets. This lead each of us to grow not only as writers, but as gardeners of each other’s poetry as well. By encouraging us to look beyond what we want out of poems, and instead delve into what the poetry wants itself, your course became a yoga of honoring what’s said and unsaid. Thank you.“ -Sam Canney

“I had the pleasure of taking Joan Kwon Glass’s Poetic Magic class in the fall of 2022. To say the experience was one of growth would be a gross understatement. In this generative workshop, I found a whole new way to look at my work while being exposed to new and exciting poems I had not yet discovered. This launched me into a writing frenzy, producing several poems I hope to see published in my newest collection! Not only was there ample time for writing, exploring others work, and workshop feedback, but Joan’s guidance as a patient and wise instructor with a humble and encouraging demeanor helped to elicit the best from each poem and poet. Her support and insight have been instrumental in my growth in the craft of poetry, and I can’t recommend her highly enough.“ -R.B. Simon, Author of The Good Truth and Not Just the Fire

“Joan is an incredibly kind, welcoming, and supportive teacher. Her classes are deeply engaging and well researched, and she introduces her students to a wide variety of poets and new and important work. Her generative prompts are inspiring, and she offers thoughtful and brilliant insight into work created in class.” -Jill Kitchen

"Joan Kwon Glass’s three-hour “New Woman Warrior Poetry” workshop was a transformative experience. She’s a warm, welcoming teacher who dives into the heart of poems; and every student seemed to come alive in the discussions. Joan’s imaginative prompts were fantastic— I’m still using them. Plus, her individual feedback was smart, unusually detailed and insightful. I recommend Joan’s workshop to poets at any stage of their writing career." -Carla Sarrett