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Found Poetry: A Poetry Workshop
$230
Poetry can be found anywhere and be created from anything. To create found poetry, we rely on a preexisting text like news articles, published poems, or excerpts from legal and government documents, to rediscover ways in which we as writers rely on language to create art. We’ll explore three specific types of found poetry: the collage poem, in which we’ll combine found words and phrases with our own; the erasure poem, where we’ll remove parts of an already existing poem while maintaining the original sequencing of words to create a new piece; and the blackout poem, where we’ll redact parts of lines and sentences of a work to uncover hidden and create new meanings.
For guidance and generative class discussions, we’ll read examples from poets such as the work of Reginald Dwayne Betts, Tracy K. Smith, Robin Coste Lewis, and Nicole Sealey. Over the course of this class, students will not only have seen and discussed many examples of found poetry, but they will also have originally constructed drafts of the different types discussed and have the opportunity to receive light feedback in response to their found poetry.
Access Program
We want our writing classes and Delves to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class and tuitions at a reduced rate. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available.
Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions.
Thea Matthews
Thea Matthews is a poet of African and Indigenous Mexican descent originally from San Francisco, California and the author of GRIME (City Lights, 2025). She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and a BA in sociology from UC Berkeley. Her poetry has appeared in the Colorado Review, The Common, Obsidian Lit & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Massachusetts Review, The New Republic, Alta Journal, On the Seawall, and others. Her first book Unearth [The Flowers] was published by Red Light Lit Press and was listed under Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Poetry of 2020. She teaches creative writing and serves as a creative writing coach to adolescent girls at CinnamonGirl. In the fall and early winter of 2023, Matthews was a poet in residence for the Museum of African Diaspora and a programming curator for the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
