Begins Monday, May 4, 2026
This is an 8-week asynchronous online writing workshop.

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Instructor Bio

Instructor Andrew Collard is the author of Lo-Fi Citadels (Wayne State University Press 2026) and Sprawl (Ohio University Press 2023), winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and a gold medal in the 2024 Midwest Book Awards. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, AGNI, Kenyon Review, and many more journals and magazines. He received a PhD from Western Michigan University and has served as a poetry editor for Witness, Third Coast Magazine, and New Issues Press. He lives with his son in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Who is this class for?

This online poetry workshop is for poets interested in moving beyond the short poem toward longer pieces and sequences. Whether you are just beginning to experiment with extended forms or have been writing poetry for years, this course welcomes writers at all levels who want to expand the possibilities of their work.

What to expect:

Sometimes, the stand-alone lyric isn't enough. In this 8-week online writing workshop, students will engage with extended forms in poetry in order to generate their own long poems and sequences. In doing so, students will find new perspectives on the poetic line, structure, and what poetry is capable of expressing.

The history of the long poem includes some of the most powerful poems ever written. Contemporary writers often turn to the long poem due to its ability to hold complication, using it to investigate sites of personal or public memory. Of the poetic sequence, Rebecca Seiferle writes that it is a form in which "disparate realities—personal experience, cultural threads, or texts—can intersect and flux and ebb across formal boundaries." This is to say that to write toward the long poem is ultimately to write toward possibility.

This poetry writing workshop will include readings from modern and contemporary poets including Gwendolyn Brooks, Muriel Rukeyser, John Murillo, Guillaume Apollinaire, Maggie Nelson, Lorine Niedecker, Robert Hayden, and Alice Notley, among others. Students will be encouraged to think modularly, drawing on ideas of structure from other mediums, such as music, comics, and TV in addition to poetry. There will be two prompts each week to help participants generate ideas for the structure and content of their poems, with written feedback from the instructor on works in progress.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will generate weekly drafts toward long poems and sequences, finishing one complete sequence and one other long poem by the end of the course. Students can expect written feedback responding to their weekly drafts, as well as written feedback including line edits and suggestions on a completed sequence and a long poem.

Readings

Readings may include (subject to change): "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, "The Canal Diaries" by Maggie Nelson, "Lake Superior" by Lorine Niedecker, The Crystal Text by Clark Coolidge, "A Street in Bronzeville" and "Gay Chaps at the Bar" by Gwendolyn Brooks, "A Refusal to Mourn..." by John Murillo, selected sonnets by Diane Seuss and Terrance Hayes, The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley, Letter to an Imaginary Friend (Book 1) by Thomas McGrath, "The Book of the Dead" by Muriel Rukeyser, three sequences by Robert Hayden, and excerpts from Hum by Jamaal May.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: The Long Poem and Place

Week 2: Journaling as Form

Week 3: Sonnets and The Sequence

Week 4: The Long Narrative Poem, Part 1

Week 5: The Long Narrative Poem, Part 2

Week 6: Documentary and Hybrid Forms

Week 7: Serial Poems

Week 8: Workshop

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Learn about the structural possibilities of the long poem and poetic sequence
• Reinvigorate your writing process by exploring extended poetic forms
• Generate a complete poetic sequence
• Produce a finished long poem
• Build a collection of drafts and ideas to continue working on after the course is over
• Gain exposure to a wide range of modern and contemporary long poem traditions

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

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

Along with your weekly deadlines, there is plenty of interaction with Andrew 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 within the online classroom environment.

You can finish the work as you see fit week-to-week, which is perfect for any schedule. Each week, discussion questions are inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. Andrew engages with these discussions throughout the week and you will receive feedback from 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. You can learn more about the Wet Ink platform by Watching a Class Demo.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $545 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: Andrew Collard
• Begins Monday, May 4, 2026
• This is an 8-week asynchronous online writing workshop hosted on the Wet Ink classroom.
• Tuition is $545 USD.