Poetry Workshops, Classes & Writing Groups

POETRY WORKSHOP
Inside Out Writing Workshop
Join us for a creative writing workshop for all levels. Inside Out Writing Workshops focus on the benefits of emotional healing through creative writing. We will chat, do exciting, innovative writing exercises and investigate our psyches through poetry and prose. Writing can help you understand the inner workings of your mind and heart. You can come to the workshop with something large on your plate like the loss of a loved one or chronic depression, or you can just feel stressed from the day. Either way, communicating with that part of us that feels pain and anxiety is beneficial. Ignoring it just makes it grow more powerful. I want us to embrace our survivor selves and create art through our pain. Let's honor our struggles and successes together.

Mimosa Books and Gifts, 260 W. Gilman, Madison, WI

Sunday, February 24, 2-4 pm. In the upstairs activity room. $15/person or $10 with a friend

any questions or to sign up, e-mail insideoutwriting@gmail.com
see the website for details on previous workshops: http://insideoutwriting.blogspot.com

About the presenter:
Lisa Marie Brodsky received her M.F.A. in Poetry from UW—Madison in 2005. She is an intuitive, empathic teacher who has had her poetry published nationally and internationally. Drawing on personal experience, she will guide you through radical self-discovery and illuminate places of peace and transformation.

POETRY WORKSHOP
Monthly Poetry Excercise Day
The Regent Neighborhood Poetry Club presents a Monthly Poetry Excercise Day, free and open to the public. Bring the blank page. Brew new material in the coffee shop ambiance of The Froth House. Get inspired by inventive, muse-invigorating exercises.
The 3rd Thursday of each month, 6:30-7:30 p.m., starting Feb 21st
LOCATION: The Froth House, 11 N. Allen St.
facilitator: Angela and other RNPC members
Contact her at (608)231-6845 or ajrydell@wisc.edu for details.

POETRY TALKS/WORKSHOPS
Spring/Summer Writing Workshops with Angela Rydell
For complete details, check out her new website: http://angela.rydell.googlepages.com
Don't hesitate to contact Angela (ajrydell@wisc.edu) with any questions.

WRITE LIKE A POET: SIX TRICKS THAT POETS CAN TEACH EVERY WRITER, with Angela Rydell and Laurel Yourke
MARCH 28TH, 3:40-5:15 p.m. Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St
General session (open to the public, $25 fee; free to conferees) To pre-register, call 608-262-7942. You may register at the door. Go to http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/LSA/writing/awi/index.html for more details.
Unless writers are poets themselves, they tend to see poetry as something they can take or leave—and for the most part leave. But if you pause for a leisurely look at poetry, you’ll discover that those who write it harness many clever strategies. For example, what can poets teach every writer about the impact of surprise, or the handling of metaphor? During this session we’ll take that leisurely look by visiting some old favorites and meeting some new ones. Along the route you’ll discover at least six secrets for writing more skillfully, succinctly and beautifully. Bring a page of writing along with you, so we can spend some time applying at least one of these techniques. Join us in bringing together both poets and non-poets to explore a world that’s useful and available to every writer, whether a poet or not.

CRAFT & CRITIQUE: THE ECSTASY OF EXTREMES – HOW TO HARNESS THE TENSION OF CONTRAST IN POETRY
Note: The 5th week includes a special bonus on publishing: a presentation by local published poet Shoshauna Shy. You can sign up for all five weeks, or just the publishing session.
APRIL 9th, 16TH, 23RD, 30TH, MAY 7th (5 weeks /Wednesdays) 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm (Wednesdays). Location: Angela’s apartment, 214 N. Allen St. #2 Fee: All 5 weeks: $115.00 To register, email Angela at ajrydell@wisc.edu (or call 608-231-6845)
Sessions 1-4
The great poets prove it’s true—opposites attract! This spring, explore how powerful poems control the collision of disorder and order, "in a dynamic tension that gives a compelling picture of the world" (Gregory Orr). Sharpen contrast in your own work. Each week we will open with a craft talk, analysis and exercises, and then move to critiques of up to six poets per session. You will find a longer description and more details on the Web at: http://angela.rydell.googlepages.com
Session 5
May 7th (open to the public 7:45-9:00 p.m, $20 fee)
After critiques on the final day, Shoshauna Shy offers successful submission tactics for getting your poems published. She'll also give creative advice on shaping and titling manuscripts, and share unique strategies for marketing them to potential presses.

EXTREME EXERCISES AND RADICAL REVISIONS: A POETRY EXERCISE SEMINAR (taught by Angela Rydell)
Saturday, MAY 17th, 1-5 p.m. Location: Avol’s Bookstore (315 W Gorham St, a block off State St) Fee: $55
This spring, it’s all about “the wow factor.” As an alternative to a traditional workshop, discover creative exercises that provoke powerful raw material and provide inventive revision strategies. You’ll learn techniques that startle, surprise and wow both writer and reader. Come craft metaphors that leap and linger, images that dazzle, diction that sizzles, line breaks that shatter expectation, and repetition that rhapsodizes. You’ll also discover the “free lance muse” technique, guaranteed to refresh your writing process. Expand your versatility as a writer, solve creative problems, and play surrealist games that loosen the left brain, delight the right, and woo the muse. Plan to generate new material, and bring at least two poems (two copies, each, double spaced if possible) to radically revise during the afternoon, in addition to writing materials, tape (or glue stick) and a scissors.
To register, contact Angela at ajrydell@wisc.edu or 608-231-6845

RAISING THE STAKES: TAKING RISKS IN POETRY (Intermediate/Advanced)
Summer Write by the Lake Program: JUNE 16th – 20TH
Location: The Pyle Center
Fee: click below for more details about Write by the Lake:
http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/wbtl.htm
Writing a good poem isn’t just about nailing your metaphor or tightening language so it sizzles. It’s taking chances, breaking “rules” and exposing yourself to the risk of discovery. Isn’t that where the energy lies? Crucial truths are at stake, and the bigger the truth the greater the stakes. Through discussion, analysis and exercises, come challenge your expectations. Raise the stakes. Go for those “big truths.”

The Clearing
www.theclearing.org

Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, WI:
Offers many spring, summer, and fall workshops with local writers.
For more information, see www.valleyridgeartstudio.com