Saturday, Mar. 3 -- Poetry Workshop: The (IL)Logic of Poems

Poetry Workshop: The (IL)Logic of Poems
Saturday, March 3, 2012
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Susan Laughter Meyers, instructor
OLLI at CCU
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
$30
Register at 843-349-6584
or webadvisor.coastal.edu

Most poems veer from linear logic in some way – and are better for it. This workshop will look at the odd, illogical turns that poems often make – with their gaps, leaps, and non sequiturs, as well as their surreal and dreamlike juxtapositions. The class will include discussion, writing activities, and a class packet. Bring an in-progress poem of yours. Within two weeks after the workshop, you have the option of emailing a poem to the instructor for feedback. Lunch can be brought or bought nearby.

Feb. 12 - 16: Ossabaw Island Writers' Retreat

Ossabaw Island Writers' Retreat
February 12 - 16, 2012
Ossabaw Island, near Savannah, GA
Faculty: Craig Johnson, fiction; Sue William Silverman, nonfiction; Susan Laughter Meyers, poetry
Visit the website for further information.

What a beautiful setting for a writers' retreat! The program includes workshops, faculty lectures and readings, student readings, individual conferences, and time for writing and exploring the island.

Poetry workshop at SCCTE Conference, Kiawah Island, SC

Thanks to Hope Spillane for inviting me to teach a poetry workshop for the South Carolina Council of Teachers of English at their annual conference at Kiawah Island, SC, a couple of weekends ago. The workshop was on the morning of January 27, a day that started out rainy but had brightened up by the start of the class; so we pulled back the heavy draperies of the conference room to let the beauty of Kiawah Island be our inspiration. It was a pleasure to work with a room full of teachers eager to talk about and write poetry.

Our topic was "Writing toward a Poem's Mystery." To explore that subject we spent time reading and discussing published poems by poets such as Charles Simic, Kay Ryan, and Thomas Transtromer; and then we tried our hand at a group poem, which we read in a round-robin approach after each participant wrote one line of the poem. An impressive group!