This is a free 4-week workshop series via ZOOM. Registration is required. Contact Leonard Gontarek at gontarek9@earthlink.net to register.
Info:
MAD POET-IN-RESIDENCE – 2020
Dates: – September 10, 17, 24, October 1 - All Thursdays, 6-7:30 PM
Location: ZOOM meeting. Code to enter meeting will be mailed at end of August.
Contact: gontarek9@earthlink.net
It is open to everyone. This workshop is presented free through the generosity of Mad Poets Society. Register now – limited enrollment.
*Students will gain a fuller understanding of poetry in our world and improve their poetic skills.
*International and American Poetry will be discussed, with a focus on what makes a poet’s voice original, what makes the voice their own, and the ways in which the poet speaks directly to the reader. Students will learn to identify, and trust, the same qualities in their poems, and establish voice as a working principle in their poetry.
*The workshop is designed to identify and develop the sense of place in the poet’s work. The aim is to firmly root the poem where it takes place, so the subject matter and concerns of the poem will unfold around it.
*Specific direction and assignments will be given, with attention to the basic elements and forms of poetry. Through invention, students will build more accurate and textured work.
*The workshop is structured to accommodate poets at any level of accomplishment.
Leonard Gontarek coordinates Peace/Works, Poetry In Common, Philly Poetry Day, hosts The Green Line Reading & Interview Series, is Poetry Consultant for Whitman at 200: Art and Democracy and contributing editor for The American Poetry Review. He is the author of six books of poems, most recently Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, Shiva. His poems have appeared in Field, Poet Lore, Verse Daily, Fence, Poetry Northwest, and The Best American Poetry. He has twice received poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on The Arts. He conducts poetry workshops in venues including, The Kelly Writers House, Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership, and weekly workshops from his home in West Philadelphia.