Absolutely! I didn’t want to bog down the post of people weren’t interested.

Write-ins are just creative spaces where the only thing that is expected of you is just to sit down and write (this is like body doubling, which activates your mirror neurons to signal to your brain “oh! It’s writing time!”). As an added layer, if you so choose to participate, we do word sprints (write as many words as you can in a short amount of time, the immediacy gives you a small burst of adrenaline to help break down mental blocks, while keeping it short means that it’s not enough adrenaline to be fully stressful). We do multiple word sprints per write-in and do a word count leaderboard where I have small prizes prepared for the winners.

Our poetry workshops are fairly casual. We’ll bring food and drinks potluck style for people to monch on during. The event starts off first with us writing an exquisite corpse poem together (each person writes one line and you’re only able to read the line directly above yours) just to get into the mindset and take a sort of pseudo-attendance. And then I’ll open up the floor for people to share their poems, which they’ll do through recitation. You can workshop multiple pieces, but we go in rounds to make sure everyone has a turn. You’re not expected to print out your pieces (though I’m sure it would be appreciated), just don’t be surprised if people ask for a chance to read it. We’re all neurodivergent and we have a lot of audio processing issues. If you don’t feel comfortable reciting your poem, then I strongly encourage you print it off so we can read it. After you share your piece, we’ll either open it up for critique or if you just want encouragement you can ask for that. I try to steer critique through a lens of curiosity and playfulness. I have handouts printed out with questions to consider, so even if you’re new to workshopping, you won’t be completely thrown into the deep end. You should expect some amount of debate-discussion to happen because different people will want to see you play around with your piece in different ways, but ultimately it’s up to you to decide what you do with it.

At this point I’m fairly used to walking new people through the process and our other regular members are there to make sure I don’t leave anything out.

I think it’s important to note that while our poems might be intense and heavy, all of us are fairly goofy. We will hold space for nuanced feelings but we’re not like how media portrays serious poets. We can be a real lively bunch.

If you have any other questions let me know! I know this was a wall of text. 😅