NOTICE: THIS WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD AT THE SWW OFFICE: 3721 Morris NE, 265-9485
Saturday, June 20
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
All prices include lunch
$69 SWW members
$79 non-members
Sign up now
Jeanne Shannon
Constance Hester
SWW All-Day Poetry Workshop
Traveling the Highways and Byways of Poetry
Whether you want to write poems or would simply like to be able to read poetry with more pleasure and deeper understanding, this workshop is for you. We will look at the work of some well-known poets to see what they were trying to say, and what they did to make their poems speak to us How did they use the tools of poetry such as rhyme, meter, and imagery, and how can we use those in our own writing? Less famous poets have a lot to teach us as well, and we may be looking at work by some poets you’ve never heard of. We will try our hand at writing in familiar and not so familiar poetic forms. (We might even invent some new forms before the day is over.). We will spend some time writing in response to prompts designed to free our imagination and stimulate the flow of creativity. It will be a lighthearted and enjoyable journey down the freeways and back roads of poetry.
JEANNE SHANNON has been writing poetry since childhood. She has published three full-length collections of her poetry and ten chapbooks. Her work has appeared in numerous small-press and university publications in the United States, Canada, England and Japan. These include Blue Mesa Review, Quarter After Eight, Bardsong, Lilliput Review, and the UNM Press anthology titled In Company: New Mexico Poets After 1960. She founded Blackberry poetry magazine in the 1970s and currently is editor/publisher of The Wildflower Press, a small-press book publisher in Albuquerque. She holds a master’s degree in English/Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico.
CONSTANCE HESTER was employed for twenty years by Alameda County Superior Court, investigating Guardianships and Conservatorships. She never wrote a poem until she was fifty. She made up for lost time by reading dozens of poetry books by contemporary women poets (and some by men), attending poetry classes and workshops and writing, writing, writing. Many of her poems have been published in poetry journals and anthologies and in 2004 she published her first book, Call Me Myriad, published by The Wildflower Press. She is at work on a second book and recently had three poems published in a New Mexico Poetry Society Anthology which is just hot off the press. She helped found a critique and writing group called Fresh Ink in California 15 years ago and after moving to New Mexico after retirement, helped found a Fresh Ink, New Mexico. In the last few years Constance has taught several all-day workshops here in Albuquerque and taught a class on New Mexico poets at Oasis several years ago. She has been a member of Southwest Writers for about nine years.