Begins Monday, January 18, 2027

Class will meet asynchronously via Wet Ink for four weeks. There are no live meeting times.

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

Led by Shannon K. Winston, the author of The Worry Dolls (Glass Lyre Press, 2025) and The Girl Who Talked to Paintings (Glass Lyre Press, 2021). Her poems have appeared in Bracken, Cider Press Review, Los Angeles Review, RHINO Poetry, SWWIM Every Day, West Trestle Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Michigan. In addition to writing poetry, she’s also a dedicated educator and has taught for numerous institutions, including the University of Michigan, Princeton University, and Indiana University. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with her partner and dog.

Who is this class for?

This online poetry workshop is for writers of all levels and experiences who are interested in drafting new poems. Whether you have written about the body for years or have never approached the subject directly, you will find generative entry points here. All levels welcome.

What to expect:

Bodies are complex and contradictory. We all have them, but how do we write about them? In this four-week creative writing workshop, we will approach the question of writing and the body through new and surprising lenses. While we will explore prompts about embodiment and our physical bodies, this course seeks to expand our understanding of the body, moving from the literal to the metaphorical and imaginative realms. We will consider bodies as maps, as being in dialogue with the animal and natural world, and as containing their own unspoken languages.

Along the way, we will explore how this topic allows us to inhabit perspectives beyond our own and to think about the body as a site of history and transformation. Through close reading, craft discussions, generative prompts, and workshop, you will experiment with techniques such as metaphor, perspective-taking, and writing from both human and non-human points of view. You will read contemporary poems and craft essays that offer a range of approaches to writing the body while generating new work of your own.

This course aims to show poets the generative power of writing the body. While we will discuss the body in concrete terms, the workshop also seeks to expand your understanding of the body as an imaginative framework and a poetic tool, broadening the ways you approach both this topic and your own writing. Because this is an asynchronous online writing class, you will complete each week's reading, prompts, and workshop on your own schedule, alongside a cohort of poets writing from different time zones.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will draft four new poems, one per week, each of which will be workshopped. Every student will receive written feedback from the instructor and at least one peer within 48 hours of the original submission. Students will also leave with four "bonus prompts" — the prompts they chose not to write about during the final week — to carry their craft forward after the course ends.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from Lucille Clifton's "Homage to My Hips," Natalie Diaz's "The First Water Is the Body," Sharon Olds's "Topography," Edgar Kunz's "Blue," and other contemporary poems, along with selections from the anthology Braving the Body (Harbor Editions, 2024). Weekly craft essays accompany each unit.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: The Ode to the Body

Students will read five to six sample poems that celebrate the body, read two sample craft essays and discussions on the topic, and generate their own poem to be workshopped.

Week 2: The Body as Map

Students will read five to six sample poems that explore the body as map and discuss thinking about the body as metaphor, as opposed to Week 1, which treats the body in more literal and physical terms. Craft essays support the discussion, and students will generate their own poem to be workshopped.

Week 3: Animal Bodies / My Body

Students will consider how writing the body can allow them to inhabit another, non-human perspective. They will choose to write from the point of view of an animal that either they can relate closely to or that repels them in some way. Students will read five to six sample poems and a craft essay on point of view, then draft their own poem to be workshopped.

Week 4: The Wild Card

With the aim of giving students a choice in their final assignment, this week is a "choose your own adventure." Students can write about illness or aging and the body, the history of the body and its inheritances, or the body's language and what language it speaks. The instructor will curate a collection of poems on each of these topics and let students pick the themes that most speak to them. The prompts students choose not to write about become bonus prompts to use after the conclusion of the course. As always, students will write a poem to be workshopped.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Draft four new poems, one each week, with written feedback from the instructor and at least one peer
  
• Expand your understanding of the body beyond the literal, working with it as metaphor, map, and imaginative framework
  
• Practice perspective-taking, including writing from non-human points of view
  
• Build a working knowledge of how contemporary poets approach embodiment, drawing on Clifton, Diaz, Olds, Kunz, and the Braving the Body anthology
  
• Leave with four bonus prompts to fuel your writing well beyond the four weeks
  
• Develop revision strategies for writers working with intimate and difficult subject matter

TESTIMONIALS:

"This was a fabulous course! I liked the clear expectations set around critiquing others' poems, which lent to a lively and supportive conversation about each other's works. I really valued the feedback from Shannon and my classmates on my poems!"
— Former Student

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class is asynchronous, meaning you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.

Along with your weekly deadlines, there is plenty of interaction with the instructor and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback in the online classroom.

You can finish the work as you see fit, week to week, which is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever they find most compelling and/or useful. The instructor engages with these discussions throughout the week, and you will receive feedback on all assigned writing activities.

HOW DOES WET INK WORK?

Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $330 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.