Against the Grain Poetry Workshop: Avoid Clichés | Feb 2027 Online

Against the Grain Writing Workshop: Avoiding Clichés in Poetry with John Sibley Williams

Begins Wednesday, February 17, 2027
Class will meet for two sessions via Zoom on Wednesdays, February 17 and February 24, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:

• Los Angeles (PST): 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
• Chicago (CST): 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
• New York (EST): 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.

Instructor John Sibley Williams is the author of nine poetry collections, including Scale Model of a Country at Dawn (Cider Press Review Poetry Award), The Drowning House (Elixir Press Poetry Award), As One Fire Consumes Another (Orison Poetry Prize), Skin Memory (Backwaters Prize, University of Nebraska Press), skycrape (WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest), and Summon (JuxtaProse Chapbook Prize). His book Sky Burial: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming in translation from the Portuguese press do lado esquerdo. A thirty-five-time Pushcart nominee, John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and Poetry Editor at Kelson Books. Previous publishing credits include Best American Poetry, Yale Review, Verse Daily, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and TriQuarterly.

Who is this class for?

This online poetry workshop is for poets of all levels who want their work to be consistently fresh, unique to their own perspective on the world, and free of “easy” or expected language. Whether you are just starting out or have been writing for years, you will leave with practical tools for sharper, more original poems.

What to expect:

Do you have a habit of using fairly obvious language or crafting expected imagery? Do you wonder if your verbs are doing enough work for the poem, or if your descriptors are too common? Do you find yourself including unnecessary details, or imagery that is too general, too vague, not truly defined? Cliché creeps into poetry because it’s easy. Writing is hard enough without interrogating every metaphor, every adjective, every simile, so we reach for the familiar because it’s safe: the borrowed line, the stand-in for something we’re too afraid or too tired to say.

When we write poetry, we’re trying to summon what’s real. Not the postcard version of life, but the true layers behind what we observe (a limp bouquet, a coughing sob, a moth hammering a porch light) persuaded to stand still long enough to reveal their truth. A poem must earn this; it must split open the ordinary and let something emerge, fresh and alive.

In this interactive poetry writing workshop, John Sibley Williams provides detailed lists of ways to rejuvenate your language, especially your imagery, alongside a variety of cliché-busting exercises and prompts for generating vivid images, verbs, and descriptors. You’ll take part in active group discussions on what makes a cliché, the rare instances when one can enhance a poem, and how each poet personally avoids them. With regular prompts and revision time built into each session, this online writing class puts every lesson into practice as poets revise together, discuss changes, brainstorm approaches for one another’s poems, and strengthen their work for submission.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will revise older poems to strengthen them and craft brand-new, cliché-busting language through a wide variety of writing prompts, working through twelve lessons across two sessions. Feedback happens live in this creative writing course, as poets revise together, discuss one another’s changes, and brainstorm alternatives. Group sharing in the second session is optional.

Readings

All materials are provided in an extensive handout and workbook with sample poems, information, tips, and prompts. No books are needed.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 (Wednesday, February 17): Defining and listing clichés; discussing students’ personal approaches to avoiding clichés; learning six techniques, each with specific prompt-based exercises.

Week 2 (Wednesday, February 24): Exploring and putting into practice six additional lessons, including prompt-based exercises; poem journaling; optional group sharing.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Recognize clichés in your own drafts, from borrowed metaphors to imagery that is too general or vague
• Learn twelve techniques for generating fresh imagery, stronger verbs, and more precise descriptors
• Understand the rare instances when a cliché can be used deliberately to enhance a poem
• Revise older poems with live input from fellow poets and ready them for submission
• Generate new, cliché-busting language through a wide variety of writing prompts
• Keep an extensive workbook of samples, tips, and prompts to use long after class ends

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $180 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: John Sibley Williams
• Begins Wednesday, February 17, 2027
• Class will meet for two sessions via Zoom on Wednesdays, February 17 and February 24, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET
• Tuition is $180 USD.