Hungry Ghosts: Writing Poems About What Haunts Us — 5-Week Online Poetry Workshop with Joan Kwon Glass Starts Tuesday, March 9th, 2027

Hungry Ghosts Poetry Workshop | Mar 2027 Online

Hungry Ghosts Writing Workshop: Writing Poems About What Haunts Us with Joan Kwon Glass

Begins Tuesday, March 9, 2027
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:

• Los Angeles (Pacific): 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
• Chicago (Central): 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
• New York (Eastern): 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Now Enrolling!

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

Instructor Joan Kwon Glass is a diasporic, mixed-race, Korean American poet and the author of the poetry collection Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms, which won the 2025 Paterson Poetry Prize, the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry, the IPPY Gold Medal for Poetry & the Perugia Press Poetry Prize & was a finalist for the 2025 Balcones Poetry Prize & the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize. Her book Night Swim won the 2021 Diode Book Prize. Joan’s poems have been featured on NPR & in Poetry, The Slowdown, Poetry Daily, Passages North, Poetry Northwest, Korea Quarterly, Prairie Schooner & elsewhere. She is a 2025 SWWIM Writer in Residence & has been a visiting writer at The Frost Place, the Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst College, Smith College & Wesleyan University. Joan lives near New Haven, CT.

Who is this class for?

This generative online poetry workshop is for poets of all levels who are drawn to longing, regret, absence, and the ghosts, literal and symbolic, that follow us. Whether you are just beginning or returning to poetry with a full notebook, you’ll find prompts, models, and a supportive community to help you write toward what haunts you.

What to expect:

In this five-week, generative poetry class, we will read & write poems that explore questions of longing, regret, absence, insatiability & ghosts (both literal & symbolic). What shapes does an absence take? What do ghosts long for? What relationship does hunger have to grief? How can what haunts us facilitate our journeys inward?

Forms we will explore include haikus, pantoums, list poems, Seussian sonnets, blackout poems, and others. We will engage in visualization & mind-mapping exercises as well as learn effective & unexpected revision strategies for writers. Students will have opportunities to learn about revision from a well-known guest writer & to engage in conversation with the teacher about writing, revising & publishing.

This Zoom writing class meets live each week, with most of each session devoted to writing from prompts and time at the end to share work and receive informal feedback. All readings will be provided by the teacher in a PDF slideshow.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will read & write poems about hungers & hauntings, generating 15–25 new poem drafts or beginnings over five weeks. Students will receive informal, verbal feedback & feedback in the chat from the teacher & fellow students as desired, and will learn about the revision process from a well-known guest poet who will visit the class virtually.

Readings

Readings may include work by writers like Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ursula Le Guin, Diane Seuss, Diamond Forde, Terrance Hayes, Su Cho, Suji Kwock Kim, Daniella Toosie-Watson, Dare Williams & Haolun Xu, among many others.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: In this first session, the facilitator will introduce the structure of the class & we will conduct class introductions. Students will learn about the hungry ghosts of Buddhism & engage in visualization, ekphrasis & mind-mapping exercises to become grounded in our work. We will spend the rest of our time writing poems using prompts inspired by writers like Ursula Le Guin & Diana Khoi Nguyen.

Week 2: We will spend most of this class writing poems using prompts inspired by writers like Diane Seuss, Su Cho & others. There will be time to share work verbally & receive informal, verbal feedback at the end of class.

Week 3: We will spend most of this class writing poems using prompts inspired by writers like Terrance Hayes, Dare Williams & others. There will be time to share work verbally & receive informal, verbal feedback at the end of class.

Week 4: This week we will focus on the revision process. What are some effective strategies for revising our poems? What are some unconventional approaches to revision? We will hear from a guest writer who will share their work & their revision process. We will write poems inspired by writers like Diamond Forde & Haolun Xu.

Week 5: In this session, we will write poems inspired by writers like Suji Kwock Kim & Daniella Toosie-Watson. There will be time to share our work verbally at the end of class as well as time for students to ask questions & engage in conversation with the teacher about writing, revising & publishing.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Generate 15–25 new poem drafts or beginnings
• Gain access to customized digital resources curated by the teacher
• Learn how to craft poems that address complex topics in new & exciting ways
• Receive feedback from the instructor and fellow students in a supportive community
• Learn revision strategies from a well-known guest poet

TESTIMONIALS:

“Joan’s 6 week class was great! She provided a wide variety of readings and unique writing prompts each class which made it easy to generate new writing. She also gave ample opportunity to share our work in a supportive environment. Her comments and reactions to our first drafts were always encouraging. Joan has a friendly competency about her that made the class relaxed and engaging. Look forward to future classes with her!”

— Nancy Murphy

“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

“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

“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

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $395 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: Joan Kwon Glass
• Begins Tuesday, March 9, 2027
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET
• Tuition is $395 USD.