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Writing Workshops

The Nobility of Labor: The Work of Poetry and the Poetry of Work with Zia Pollis

$295

4 Sessions

Out of stock

Once a week Tuesdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 9:00 pm EDT June 13 to July 11, 2023

Online via Zoom

Registration for this workshop is closed.

Note: There will be no session on July 4th.

In this workshop, we will be using poetry to render a type of alchemy upon work and the labors of the body. Toil, craft, sweat, blood, and boredom can be a fertile substrate from which fruits of imagination may grow. This workshop will highlight working class experiences, writing about resource (material, natural, financial, spiritual), and embodied practices of poetry-making through working with our hands/feet/legs/lungs/arms and more. In our reading, we will be exploring poets who accomplish this in various ways, including Martín Espada and Ross Gay among others, as well as writing one poem per week to integrate and engage with our explorations.

Course Outline

Send out reading/listening/viewing packet before first session, 1–2 writing prompts based off readings, instructions to write 1 poem for the upcoming week, with specification on who will be workshopped and when.

  • Week 1
    • Group Introduction
    • Brief discussion of readings/video/audio material highlighting aspects related to writing prompts
    • Workshopping designated students
    • Talk about next week’s writing prompt and materials
  • Week 2
    • Brief discussion of readings/video/audio material highlighting aspects related to writing prompts
    • Workshopping designated students
    • Talk about next week’s writing prompt and materials
  • Week 3
    • Brief discussion of readings/video/audio material highlighting aspects related to writing prompts
    • Workshopping designated students
    • Talk about next week’s writing prompt and materials
  • Week 4
    • Brief discussion of readings/video/audio material highlighting aspects related to writing prompts
    • Workshopping designated students
    • Concluding remarks

Capacity: 12

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Led by

  • Zia Pollis Bio Pic - Zia Pollis

    Zia Pollis

    Zia Pollis

    Zia Pollis is a poet and illustrator from Peñasco, New Mexico. She holds a B.A. in English from Reed College and is a Master’s of Divinity student at the Harvard Divinity School. She serves as the assistant director for the Program for the Evolution of Spirituality at Harvard University where she leads the monthly “Art and Religion” working group. She has organized and participated in numerous poetry communities and festivals across New Mexico, Oregon, and Massachusetts, including the Taos Verse Converse festival and the Society of the Muse of the Southwest (SOMOS). She also competed in the national youth poetry slam, Brave New Voices, and has been featured in MassPoetry‘s U35 reading series. Her work has appeared in Nailed Magazine, MassPoetry, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and others. Her spring poetry collection, Labors of Mercy, is forthcoming from Lightship Press.