by Writing Workshops Staff
2 months ago
There is something almost alchemical about the moment when a poet discovers that constraints can liberate rather than confine. Sarah Stern, whose three published collections have earned her six Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Poetry Awards and two Pushcart Prize nominations, knows this paradox intimately. At twelve, writing her first poem alongside her mother, she could hardly have imagined that decades later she would be teaching other writers how the ancient scaffolding of poetic forms, sonnets that have echoed through centuries, ghazals that crossed continents, centos that weave together the voices of literary ancestors, might become the very tools that unlock their most authentic voices.
Stern's upcoming three-week workshop, Poetry and Its Forms: Learn the Rules then Break Them, emerges from a philosophy that treats traditional poetic structures not as museum pieces but as living conversations across time. "The various forms of poetry have rich histories that connect us to our poetic ancestors," she explains. "How great that we get to have a dialogue with them through these forms."
This is not the rigid formalism of academic poetry workshops, where adherence to meter and rhyme scheme becomes an end in itself. Instead, Stern offers something more subversive: the radical notion that by first learning the rules, really learning them, understanding their historical weight and cultural origins, writers can then break them with intention, with purpose, with the kind of informed rebellion that transforms both poet and poem.
For Stern, who found her poetic voice in the transformative workshops at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y, teaching has become an act of paying forward the gift of literary community. Her own work, including her forthcoming collection Dear Letters In The Red Box, demonstrates this same principle of respectful innovation; she writes primarily in free verse, yet when she employs traditional forms, even broken ones, "the poem becomes better."
The workshop's appeal lies not just in its technical instruction but in its promise of transformation through constraint. In an era when the blank page can feel overwhelmingly infinite, Stern offers the paradoxical freedom that comes from working within boundaries, whether those boundaries are the fourteen lines of a sonnet, the repeating refrains of a ghazal, or the visual inspiration of ekphrastic verse. Her students don't simply learn to write in forms; they learn to make forms their own, to find their voice not despite the constraints but because of them.
"Almost anything is possible in a poem," Stern reflects, "and the forms, almost counterintuitively, allow for that." It's a sentiment that captures both the mystery and the methodology of her teaching: the understanding that sometimes we must first learn to dance within the lines before we can transcend them entirely.
Writing Workshops: Hi, Sarah. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Sarah Stern: Hi! I'm Sarah Stern and I've been writing poetry for most of my life. I remember writing my first poem with my mom when I was 12 years old. She encouraged me!
I started taking my poetry seriously and thinking of myself as a poet after taking workshops at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. It was a transformative experience--wow--to actually meet people who were struggling with the same things--finding the right words. Those first workshops with great and inspiring poets and fellow students helped me to see myself as a poet, and to admit that yes, I write poetry!
I have been teaching workshops for over 12 years. It is my hope that my workshops do the same for others in a supportive space, where people are empowered to take chances with their poems. Now, so many years later, with three published poetry books and another accepted for publication, I still struggle to find the right words, but at least now I can name it. I look forward to working with you, and I'm super excited to be teaching with Writing Workshops!
Writing Workshops: What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice? Have you noticed a need to focus on this element of craft?
Sarah Stern: I want to teach Poetry and Its Forms: Learn the Rules then Break Them, because it's absolutely one of the things I focus on in my own writing practice. I tend to write in free verse, but when I do write in more traditional form, even if I break the rules, the poem becomes better. The various forms of poetry have rich histories that connect us to our poetic ancestors. How great that we get to have a dialogue with them through these forms. I look at the forms as a wonderful call for conversation through time.
Writing Workshops: Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part about this class you've dreamed up?
Sarah Stern: Students will learn the rules of some key forms of poetry, while also being encouraged to break the rules of the form, and push its boundaries. Students will receive a packet each week, which will have a description of the form, its history, examples of poems that incorporate the form, and prompts. The packets will have a broad and inclusive range of contemporary and modern poets from various countries, ethnicities, and genders. Each class will include free-writing time, usually about 15-20 minutes, with time for sharing work.
Many of the forms are centuries old with rich histories that reflect the countries they originated in and also traveled through. Students will come away with new poems of their own that not only incorporate the forms, but include their own interpretation of them. As a result of fostering a supportive and encouraging workshop, I hope students will come away with a new confidence to take chances in their own work.
My favorite part of the class is when a student reads a poem then admits, "I never wrote a poem about that before." And the "that" could mean anything. I so enjoy seeing students realize that almost anything is possible in a poem, and that the forms, almost counterintuitively, allow for that!
Writing Workshops: What was your first literary crush?
Sarah Stern: Oh my goodness--so many! I'll name a few--Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Keats, Basho, Sharon Olds, and Philip Levine.
Writing Workshops: What are you currently reading?
Sarah Stern: Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss, What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyn Forche, Ten Windows by Jane Hirshfield, and too many magazines and newspapers that I try to keep up with!
Writing Workshops: How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
Sarah Stern: I'm part of a workshop that meets monthly, and I think of that as a deadline for a poem. I know I will stick with it, if after I read it outloud something happens to me when I hear my own words, meaning there's room here for something to develop. And then the fun begins--the process of revision, which is another course I teach. The forms help very much in the process of revision as well. Sometimes it's important to let a poem sit for a while and let it brew, and then come back to it. I always say to my students that you should never throw a poem out. Keep it. It may be the key to a new poem you haven't written yet!
Writing Workshops: Where do you find inspiration?
Sarah Stern: A great question. I think I find inspiration mostly in the natural world--the poem eventually may not be about the natural world at all, but it starts there, perhaps in the slant of the light through the forest or with an animal. Sometimes inspiration comes from an overheard conversation--just a snippet of something that sticks with me. It can of course come from something I've read or seen in a museum, on the street, anywhere. I do think we can't wait for inspiration, though, we have to forge on with our poems. Sometimes the inspiration comes after the poem has started. I find inspiration isn't always linear!
Writing Workshops: What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Sarah Stern: One of the best pieces of advice was from Jean Valentine, who said, "You have to always leave room for the reader." I love that and think of it often. In that readers come to poems with their own experiences and there should be room for them in the poem. One of the things that makes poetry so difficult is the idea of compression. A poem can sometimes do the work of a novel. And often what's left out is as important as what's in the poem.
Writing Workshops: What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
Sarah Stern: There are a number of books I like to recommend--here are two: 100 poems to Break Your Heart by Edward Hirsch and The Eloquent Poem; 128 Contemporary Poems and Their Making edited by Elise Paschen. I recommend them for their honesty and beauty on the craft of poetry!
Writing Workshops: Bonus question: What's your teaching vibe?
Sarah Stern: My teaching vibe is supportive, fun and engaging.
Learn more about Sarah's upcoming class, Poetry and Its Forms: Learn the Rules then Break Them, and sign up now to avoid the waitlist.
Instructor Sarah Stern is the author of three poetry books: We Have Been Lucky in the Midst of Misfortune (Kelsay Books, Aldrich Press, 2018), But Today Is Different (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014), and Another Word For Love (Finishing Line Press, 2011). Her newest book, Dear Letters In The Red Box, will be published by Kelsay Books and available in early 2026. She is a six-time winner of the Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Poetry Award, a recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations, and several Poets & Writers' Readings & Workshops Grants. Stern is an educator at Poets House in New York City. She graduated from Barnard College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
