Writing Poetry: Deepening the Image

INSTRUCTOR: Melissa McEver Huckabay

TIME: Sunday, July 28, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CDT

PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, July 22. After Monday, July 22: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.

LOCATION: Online via Zoom

LEVEL: All levels

CAP: 15

Poet Edward Hirsch defines deep imagery as “welling up out of the unconscious … uniting the inner and outer worlds.”

What is in your unconscious and how can you bring those images into your poetry? Images take us deeper into a poem, going beyond telling and inviting readers to feel and experience with the poet. This is a powerful tool and often brings surprise and uncommon beauty into a poem.

In this generative poetry workshop, participants will study the work of poets skilled at creating deeply realized images. With award-winning poet Melissa McEver Huckabay, you will explore the effects imagery has on readers and practice writing your own surprising and exciting poems through Melissa’s helpful prompts and exercises.

By workshop’s end, each participant will have two or more new poem drafts and many ideas on how to strengthen the imagery in their own writing.

This event is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. This project is generously funded by the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.