Lauren Brazeal Garza is the author of three short books of poetry and fiction in addition to her memoir-in-verse, Gutter (YesYes Books, 2018), which chronicles her homelessness as a teenager. Her most recent project, a literary horror novel, was inspired by her experiences as a queer woman living in poverty after she aged out of the foster system. She has also published three chapbooks of poetry, most recently, Santa Muerte, Santa Muerte: I Was Here, Release Me (Tram Editions, 2023), a series of fictional interviews with ghosts. Her poetry, lyric essays, and fiction have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Waxwing, and Verse Daily among many other journals. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing from Bennington College, and will graduate summer 2024 with a Ph.D. in Literature from UT Dallas, where she teaches literature and creative writing. 

Read an Interview with Lauren on Finding Healing Through Poetry.

For centuries, readers and writers have turned to poetry to find hope and heal from illness, trauma, loss, and grief. This four-week generative workshop will explore how poets find healing through their craft by looking at famous poems and discussing different approaches to writing as a means of healing. Each week, we will explore a different technique that can help us, as poets, access healing in our own work. For poets who may have taken my previous offerings of this course, we will study new poems of healing by poets such as Melania Luisa Marte, Jenn Givhan, and Joy Harjo.

Each session will feature a discussion of healing within one famous poem, an exploration of different approaches to crafting our own poems, and a unique generative prompt that encourages a new approach or technique.

Each meeting will also offer the opportunity for each student to workshop one of their own poems with the group for the purpose of receiving constructive, supportive feedback.

Through our discussions and explorations, we will discover how using literary devices, like metaphor, sound, sensory details, sentence structure, and line breaks, can help us create compelling poems that allow us to more powerfully articulate our thoughts and emotions. We will also draft one poem each week that experiments with using these techniques and receive weekly feedback from me as well as your peers.

At the close of the course, each student will choose one poem they are most proud of to share with the class during our final Zoom session as part of a celebratory reading.

All reading materials will be offered at no cost by the instructor.

COURSE OUTLINE:

Week 1 - Introduction: Expressing Anger as a Path to Healing

Week 2 - Healing through Remembrance

Week 3 - Insisting on Joy

Week 4 - Looking to the Horizon & Course Finale

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• We will study and learn a variety of techniques used by contemporary poets who write about healing and resilience in unique and interesting ways.
• Explore and experiment with new techniques in our own work by workshopping one draft of a poem per week to the class, begun during in-class writing sessions based on open-ended generative prompts.
• Students will be able to submit one draft of a poem per week to me to receive private constructive feedback.
• Gain experience reading our work in front of a supportive audience of our peers throughout the course.
• We will leave the course equipped with a better toolbox for crafting compelling poems which more powerfully articulate our thoughts and emotions.
  

TESTIMONIALS:

“I love love loved this course! It was super fun and I had a great time. I especially appreciated how much freedom we were given for the writing prompts, and the structure of the workshop and peer comments were so effective and helpful.” -David R.

“This was one of the most charming and well-put-together courses I've had the pleasure of taking. Discussions were open and full of ideas, coupled with informative lectures. If you participated in class, the rewards were clear and obvious. Ms. Brazeal Garza was an excellent teacher for this subject and genuinely had me interested in new topics.” -Tiffany W.

"Lauren is phenomenal! She is extremely passionate, kind, and smart. She has the student's best interests at heart and makes great points on improving our writing. One of the best writing instructors I've had. I hope more writers take her classes in the future. She is also very organized and is a great overall teacher" -Megan K.

"This was most definitely one of my favorites from this year. The course was extremely flexible, and I found substantial value from the course material” -Mark L.

“I enjoyed everything about this class! Lauren did a wonderful job engaging us and giving us the space to grow and improve as writers. I'll definitely take more courses from her in the future." -Troy N.

"Lauren gave me room to grow and showcase what I can achieve as both a creative writer and reader. I'm so grateful for her class and her insights, which have genuinely made me a better writer." -Alex S.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: