Beginning on January 11th, local poet Carl Adamshick is teaching a six-week Winter Poetry Workshop on Sunday nights, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Literary Arts (925 SW Washington). Looking forward to it, we asked him a few questions about the class:
What inspired you to teach this class?
I find being in a classroom exhilarating. I love the creative conversations that happen when people focus and discuss ideas. The whole room is charged with possibility and I like to be around that feeling.
What would be your advice for someone who is thinking about taking this class?
To come and sit around the table with everyone and don’t be shy, to come and talk about what you think poems are and do.
Why do you think poetry is important?
Poetry is supremely humane. And, as much as I believe society tries to take art away from individuals, I believe we are built to make art and be creative.
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Participants in this six-week workshop will bring poems each week and receive constructive feedback in a supportive setting. This class assumes some prior experience with writing and publishing poetry. Most of the class will be devoted to specific suggestions on poems workshopped as well as general advice about the process of editing. Practical advice about the process of publishing in journals and about preparing a manuscript will also be offered. Class is limited to 12 students. Click here to register!
Carl Adamshick received the 2010 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and the Oregon Book Award for his first book, Curses and Wishes. His poems and essays have appeared in Narrative, American Poetry Review, Tin House, The Harvard Review, and elsewhere. He is an editor and publisher at Tavern Books. His most recent book is Saint Friend.
