Begins Monday, October 5th, 2026

This class is asynchronous and meets via Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Complete weekly assignments on your own schedule.

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

Led by Holly Lyn Walrath, a writer, editor, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Analog, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the author of several books of poetry, including Glimmerglass Girl (2018), Numinose Lapidi (2020), and The Smallest of Bones (2021). She holds a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. In 2019, she launched Interstellar Flight Press, an indie SFF publisher dedicated to publishing underrepresented genres and voices.

Who is this class for?

This online poetry workshop is built for new and emerging poets ready to gather their work into a cohesive manuscript. Open to all levels and all genres of poetry, it's ideal for writers who have poems on the page but feel overwhelmed by the task of shaping them into a chapbook or full-length book.

What to expect:

For new poets, the task of writing enough poems to fill a book can feel overwhelming. In this creative writing workshop, you'll distinguish between chapbooks and full-length poetry books, explore the importance of theming your collection, and learn to write poems that speak to and interact with one another.

From there, the course covers the practical craft of assembly: methods for selecting poems for a full-length collection, ordering and sequencing for emotional impact, and finishing touches like epigraphs and author's notes. You'll study how published poets build themed collections and apply those strategies to your own body of work.

By the end of this online writing class, you'll have the skills to move from a folder of individual poems toward a publishable manuscript — and a clear understanding of how to submit and market your book of poetry.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will produce a first draft of a poetry manuscript (chapbook or full-length), organized and sequenced into a cohesive collection. Working at your own pace within weekly deadlines, you'll receive feedback from the instructor and peers on all assigned writing activities through the Wet Ink classroom.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Theme Is Queen — Choosing and Writing Poems in Conversation

Week 2: Structure, Structure, Structure — Sequencing a Book of Poetry

Week 3: Creating a Narrative Arc — The Reader's Emotional Journey

Week 4: Submitting Poetry Books and Marketing Your Book

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• End the class with a first draft of your poetry book
• Explore different methods of sequencing or ordering poems
• Learn from poets who have published themed collections
• Organize and focus your body of poetry
• Learn about submitting poetry books to publishers

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.