Overwintering: Poems for the Dark Months and What Survives — A 6-Week Poetry Writing Workshop with Melanie Hyo-In Han

Begins Sunday, December 6, 2026

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Sundays, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM ET

A Note on Sessions: Class starts in December and concludes in January, with a break over the holidays. December 6 and 13, 2026, then January 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2027. No class on December 20, December 27, or January 3.

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PST): 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM / Chicago (CST): 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM / New York (EST): 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM / London (GMT): 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM / Berlin (CET): 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM

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

Instructor Bio

Instructor Melanie Hyo-In Han is a poet, translator, and educator born in Korea and raised in East Africa who recently moved from the U.S. to the U.K. She is the author of No Way of Returning Home (The Poetry Lighthouse, 2026), Passing Notes in Secret (boats against the current, 2025), Abecedarian: Banff, Canada (kith books, 2025), My Dear Yeast (Milk & Cake Press, 2023), and Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips (Finishing Line Press, 2021), as well as the translator of several collections of Spanish poetry (Hebel Ediciones). Her work has been supported by fellowships from The Society of Authors, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and elsewhere. Han has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net, and awards from The International Human Rights Art Movement, "Boston in 100 Words," Valiant Scribe, The Lyric Magazine, and others. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing, an MFA in Poetry and Translation, and an M.Ed. in English and Spanish. Currently, she teaches undergraduate literature and creative writing classes. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Flora Fiction and the Two Languages Prize Editor at Gasher Press.

Who is this class for?

This online poetry workshop is for poets who want to write about difficult material — grief, memory, love, change — through the lens of the natural world and the turning of the seasons. No prior nature-writing or ecological knowledge is required, just a willingness to pay close attention and write toward what's hard. All levels are welcome.

What to expect:

Winter arrives slowly, preceded by a long series of changes: the light shortens, animals leave or go into hibernation, and the world prepares for stillness. In this six-week creative writing workshop, we'll use the changing of the seasons to write poems the way the natural world moves through winter. We'll begin with broad sensory observation and the question of specificity in poetry, then follow ecological movement — migration, hibernation, decay — toward dormancy and quiet.

But the natural world is never just the natural world. What survives a difficult season is also a way of asking what survives a difficult year, or a difficult memory. Alongside our ecological readings, we'll write about the harder feelings a season like winter can hold, and test how weather and landscape do emotional work in a poem — how they can stand in for something we haven't let ourselves say yet. Rather than treating nature as a source of imagery alone, this online writing class uses ecological process itself as a way into that harder material.

In our final session, we'll turn to the page itself, using visual and experimental poetic form to give shape to a difficult season. Through generative writing prompts, readings, and both peer and instructor feedback, you'll build a portfolio of poetry that pays close attention to the natural world — and to what the natural world finally lets us say about ourselves.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will produce a portfolio of 4-6 poems, moving from close observation of the natural world toward harder emotional material and into visual and experimental form. Each student submits one poem draft per week and receives written instructor feedback. Beginning in Week 2, students also give and receive weekly structured peer feedback.

Readings

Readings may include Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"; Aimee Nezhukumatathil, "Self-Portrait as Scallop" and "Meals of Grief & Happiness" from Oceanic; Alice Oswald, an excerpt from Dart; Forrest Gander, "Littoral Zone"; Jane Hirshfield, "The Weighing"; Cecilia Vicuña, "Word & Thread"; and Linda Hogan, "The Fallen."

All readings will be provided as PDFs or links, and/or read together in class. There are no books to purchase.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 (December 6): What Prepares to Leave — We will read and discuss poems built from broad sensory observation. In-class generative exercise on noticing; students will draft a poem beginning from one physical sign that a season, or something else, is turning.

Week 2 (December 13): Field Notes — We will look closely at poems that use precise, specific natural imagery. Exercise on precision and naming; students will revise Week 1's poem, replacing general language with exact, specific detail.

Holiday Break — No class December 20, December 27, or January 3.

Week 3 (January 10): Migration — We will examine poems structured around movement or journey. Students will draft a poem structured as a route or series of waypoints, mapping an ecological or personal journey.

Week 4 (January 17): What Goes Underground — We will discuss poems that engage dormancy, hiding, and decay. Students will draft a poem addressing something dormant, hidden, or breaking down, whether literal or emotional, letting poetic form loosen or fragment as the subject does.

Week 5 (January 24): Weather as Emotion — Students will explore how weather and landscape convey emotion and stand in for what goes unsaid. Students will select 1-2 poems from their portfolio for the final share in Week 6.

Week 6 (January 31): The Shape of Stillness — We will return to poems working in visual and experimental form, including what "stillness" looks like on the page. We will close the workshop with portfolio sharing and a reflection circle.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A portfolio of 4-6 poems moving from close observation to harder emotional material
• Written instructor feedback on a new poem draft every week
• Techniques for using ecological process — migration, dormancy, decay — as structure rather than decoration
• Strategies for letting weather and landscape carry emotional weight in a poem
• Hands-on practice with visual and experimental form, including white space, fragmentation, and spatial arrangement
• A community of poets working through the same season together

TESTIMONIALS:

"I love this class and see all the care and intention that is going into all of it."

— Former Student

"I very much appreciate how carefully and thoughtfully you have put these classes together and also, getting feedback from you on a poem a week is GREAT!"

— Former Student

"Wonderful course! I'm enjoying it so much! Thank you for all of the hard work you are putting in, especially with so many different types of people and personalities."

— Former Student

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $445 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: Melanie Hyo-In Han
• Begins Sunday, December 6, 2026
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Sundays, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM ET
• Sessions: December 6 and 13, 2026; January 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2027 Begins Sunday, December 6, 2026
  Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Sundays, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM ET
• A Note on Sessions: Class starts in December and concludes in January, with a break over the holidays.
• Class meeting dates are: December 6 and 13, 2026, then January 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2027.
• No class on December 20, December 27, or January 3.
• Tuition is $445 USD.