Joan Kwon Glass is a Korean diasporic author, winner of the 2024 Perugia Press Poetry Prize for her manuscript DAUGHTER OF THREE GONE KINGDOMS (September 2024) & author of NIGHT SWIM, winner of the Diode Book Prize (Diode Editions, 2022). She serves as editor-in-chief for Harbor Review, and Joan’s poems have been featured or are forthcoming in Poetry Daily, The Slowdown, Poetry Northwest, Ninth Letter, Rattle, Asian American Writer’s Workshop (The Margins), Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Cherry Tree, Juniper, Salamander & elsewhere. She lives in coastal Connecticut with her family where she is a public school educator.

How can pop culture provide us with new ways to navigate our complex realities, cull our most authentic selves & reimagine our futures?

What do Barbie, Beyonce & Ali Wong have to teach us about navigating our lives & our identities? How can icons & artists like Sinead O’Conner inspire poems about truth-telling & rebellion? And how can pop culture provide us with new ways to harness our complex realities, cull our most authentic selves & reimagine our futures?

In this three-week-long, generative workshop, poet Joan Kwon Glass will lead us through writing exercises that draw inspiration both from poems & from pop & cultural icons, song lyrics, memes & scenes from movies.

We will explore poems by writers who masterfully respond to and/or incorporate pop culture into their body of work, including but not limited to Dorothy Chan, Morgan Parker, Chen Chen, Matthew Olzmann, Benjamin Garcia, Jared Beloff, Victoria Chang & Jen Karetnik.

There will be opportunities during each session to share work and receive informal, verbal feedback, but this is primarily a generative class.

**No required texts; the teacher will provide all materials before the start of class

COURSE OUTLINE

Week One: In this session, we will review community norms, introduce ourselves & engage in brainstorming/journaling exercises. The teacher will introduce the theme of the class and explain its inspiration. We will discuss the question–in what ways might pop culture (including food, music & film) and cultural icons inspire new poems? In this session, we will write new poems (including list poems and odes) inspired by Sinead O’Connor, Beyonce & Ali Wong & read poems including but not limited to Benjamin Garcia & Matthew Olzmann.

Week Two: In this session, we will read & write poems inspired by superheroes, villains & cartoons & other television characters/shows. How can heroism & “evil” play a role in how we view ourselves, each other & the world? What connections can we draw between superheroes & survival, villains & revenge? In this session we will write new poems inspired by Marvel characters, Disney villains & unexpected characters that walk the line between hero and villain. We will explore how various poetic forms including prose poems & experimental forms can be effective when writing about pop culture & identity. Readings will include but not be limited to Lucille Clifton & Chen Chen, Matthew Olzmann, Amorak Huey & Jared Beloff.

Week Three: In this session, we will explore the pop music & movies of our younger days. What part of our narratives, our truths, can be teased from an exploration of the pop culture influences of our youth? What questions are we seeking answers to & how can the narratives & sub-texts of our musical & film influences help us to seek answers (or more questions!)? How can pop culture help us identify what requires resolution? In this session, we will explore paradoxes & consider the deep dive. In this session, we may write free verse poems, elegies, anti-elegies & modern sonnets. Readings will include but not be limited to Jen Karetnik, Angelique Zobitz, Morgan Parker & Christina Lee.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Students will explore & examine pop culture as a gateway to self-portraiture & revelation.
• Students will conduct character studies of cultural icons as a way to more deeply understand & convey the complexities of one’s own experiences & identities.
• Students will incorporate visual & auditory aesthetics from costumes, cartoons, films & music in the development of one’s poetic voice

TESTIMONIALS:

"Working with Joan has been an absolute gift. Her generative workshops are welcoming and fun, and I come away with drafts I can later craft into strong poems. Her prompts are rich and inspiring, beginning with stimulus poems from very cool poets, many of whom are new to me. This exposure to novel work is an exciting catalyst for my poetry. Her handouts are fabulous– filled with many more prompts and poems than we can cover in class. Joan creates a safe and supportive space for sharing work; her kindness is contagious!" -Ann Weill

I’ve attended over a dozen poetry workshops in person and online. The time I spent with Joan Kwon Glass was by far, the most productive, enriching and insightful for me as a poet. Her deep knowledge of lesser known poets took the class to a whole new level of inspiration. Joan set the tone immediately for a creative, safe and supportive environment. The structure of the class, gave everyone time to listen, write and the opportunity to share our work. Joan brought her focus, devotion and good humor to every session. Her organized presentation was also much appreciated. We were doing serious writing – and thanks to Joan’s teaching style- with light hearts. -Moe Phillips

“Joan Kwon Glass’s three-hour “New Woman Warrior Poetry” workshop was a transformative experience. She’s a warm, welcoming teacher who dives into the heart of poems; and every student seemed to come alive in the discussions. Joan’s imaginative prompts were fantastic— I’m still using them. Plus, her individual feedback was smart, unusually detailed and insightful. I recommend Joan’s workshop to poets at any stage of their writing career.” -Carla Sarrett

“Joan is an incredibly kind, welcoming, and supportive teacher. Her classes are deeply engaging and well researched, and she introduces her students to a wide variety of poets and new and important work. Her generative prompts are inspiring, and she offers thoughtful and brilliant insight into work created in class.” -Jill Kitchen

“I was so fortunate to be able to take a generative poetry writing course with Joan Kwon Glass. Joan led a wonderful, dynamic discussion each week, provided thoughtful, insightful feedback on poems drafted during the course, and created a syllabus full of inspiring prompts and poems to spark new work. I hope to take another class with her -soon!” -Marceline White

“I have had a broad range of experience with all kinds of classes, programs, and collaborations where everyone brings something personally important to the table to make progress on. You provided a space that opened up more and more every session, and I believe this is in part due to the universal respect you gave each and every one of our works. You smoothly identified what each poem was asking for and went beyond to foster new possibilities for us as poets. This lead each of us to grow not only as writers, but as gardeners of each other’s poetry as well. By encouraging us to look beyond what we want out of poems, and instead delve into what the poetry wants itself, your course became a yoga of honoring what’s said and unsaid. Thank you.“ -Sam Canney

“I had the pleasure of taking Joan Kwon Glass’s Poetic Magic class in the fall of 2022. To say the experience was one of growth would be a gross understatement. In this generative workshop, I found a whole new way to look at my work while being exposed to new and exciting poems I had not yet discovered. This launched me into a writing frenzy, producing several poems I hope to see published in my newest collection! Not only was there ample time for writing, exploring others work, and workshop feedback, but Joan’s guidance as a patient and wise instructor with a humble and encouraging demeanor helped to elicit the best from each poem and poet. Her support and insight have been instrumental in my growth in the craft of poetry, and I can’t recommend her highly enough.“ -R.B. Simon, Author of The Good Truth and Not Just the Fire

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: