Saturday, July 19th, 2025

Live Seminar via Zoom starting at 12 pm ET 
Alt time zones: 9:30 pm IST |8 pm GST

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

Instructor Aekta K. is the winner of Breakout Prize 2022 in Poetry, and The Baltimore Review’s Winter Contest in Poetry. She’s a finalist for Indiana Review’s Poetry Prize 2022, and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Epiphany, Best of Net by Nurture Literary, Best Microfiction by Passages North, and elsewhere. She’s the founder of Poetry Plant Project, where she conducts generative writing workshops. She’s been long listed for TOTO awards by TFA three times. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School in New York. She’s taught creative writing at Parsons School of Design, High School of Economics & Finance with WriteOn NYC, and Girls Write Now. She has works published in Penn Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Speculative Nonfiction, VIDA, Jaggery, Kitaab Singapore, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Dubai, indulges in sunsets, and is working on two books.

This slice of life workshop will hold space for you to confront and comfort your grief on paper. Despite putting our grief in the spotlight, we'll be navigating through the anatomy of a poem, and/or of a story, what makes it, breaks it, what purpose does it serve, the intent of syntax, functional verbs, narrative voice, tone, and mood of the overall piece.

We'll discuss reading resources and dialogue with your written work. There will be questions and many feelings—writing from grief is a tender thing. We'll talk about grace and what elements of grace can reshape a grief-induced poem or story. We'll consider tactile and sensory details.

We'll also hold space for the larger questions about grief. We'll fill our hands with what we can learn.

This workshop is open to writers and poets at any stage in their writing journey. 

CLASS TAKEAWAYS:

Technical craft elements applied to grief writing: Students will learn how to effectively use the anatomy of poems and stories—including syntax, functional verbs, narrative voice, tone, and mood—specifically when writing about grief experiences.

The transformative relationship between grief and grace: Participants will explore how elements of grace can reshape grief-induced writing, incorporating tactile and sensory details to create more resonant work.

Community-supported exploration of grief through writing: Students will engage in dialogue about their written work in a supportive environment, discussing resources and addressing larger questions about grief while developing their unique voice regardless of their experience level.

TESTIMONIALS:

“Aekta is an effective teacher and patient mentor. I have been in multiple workshops which she facilitated and I can vouch for her skillful class management and well-thought out structured lesson plans that helped me to understand the technicalities of writing. She made each class enjoyable and engaging with unique activities while always including generative writing assignments. I really appreciated that she created a democratic space for learning and stimulating discussions for everyone involved. She will be an asset to any institution. I would highly recommend her.”
-former student

“Aekta has taught and mentored me through three workshops under the Poetry Plant Project. She has helped me edit and better my work consistently, with extremely useful feedback, thorough guidance and endless motivation. Aekta is the kind of teacher & poet I constantly find myself turning to, for inspiration. It has been because of her help and support that I have come up with some of my best work, published as well as unpublished." -former student

"Aekta is kind, soft-spoken and empathetic along with being a very disciplined teacher and mentor, who made sure I understood the value of mine as well as everybody else's time in class, encouraged us to adhere to deadlines and pushed us to try and incorporate various new elements and techniques in our work.
I highly recommend Aekta and am certain that she will prove to be one of the biggest assets in anything and everything she chooses to work with/work on. It has been an honor to know her in capacities beyond that of a teacher and to have found in her a friend, a guide and a mentor. I wish her all the best for every great opportunity that is to come her way!” -former student

“Aekta has played an instrumental role in my writing journey. I have attended three of her workshops (currently in a one-on-one program) that dive deep into the nuances of writing. With the Poetry Plant Project, she has created a space where we could enter a no-judgment area to experiment with different writing styles. More than just a workshop, PPP is a community." -former student

"Aekta has a magic wand that can make anyone fall in love with the art of writing. She curates every lesson plan with utmost detail. They have all been valuable from the questions she asks, in-class exercises, and bringing various perspectives to the detailed feedback she provides on our writing." -former student

"I highly recommend Aekta to anyone who wants mentorship for their writing and anyone looking to engage with a human form of poetry.” - former student

“Poetry Plant Project pushed me to think about poetry differently—to really decipher what makes a poem, and what holds a poem together. I learned a lot about the latter through all the universes we visited in poetry packets and each others’ poems. It pushed me to take risks and write about subjects I usually struggle with. It has made me want to experiment further with punctuation and form and most importantly made me read both, my poems and others with a different perspective. Overall, it has been a journey full of wonder, learning, and growth as both, a human being and poet. Aekta is a wonderful educator and PPP was a really beautiful experience. It was nourishing not just for my poems but also for my soul.” -former student

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class will meet via Zoom on Saturday, July 19th, 2025, starting at 12PM ET.

• Aekta K. | Live via Zoom

• Saturday, July 19th, 2025

• Live Seminar via Zoom starting at 12 pm ET;
  

• Alt time zones: 9:30 pm IST | 8 pm GST

• Tuition is $75 USD.