Updated description of Poetry Workshop 2014

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I completed the agenda for the 2014 Highlights Poetry Workshop in September at the Barn in Honesdale. This will be posted on the Highlights Foundation Workshop page shortly but I see no reason not to share it now. Sign up if you’re interested. Tell a friend. It’s a great venue and I promise you an experience that you’ll remember.

Workshop Description

Date: September 29 – October 2, 2014
Arrive Monday, September 29, at 3:P.M. for a tour of HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN and Boyds Mills Press. Ends Thursday, October 2, after lunch.

Skype Guests: Kenn Nesbitt, U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate (via Skype) and Jane Yolen Guest Presentation: Rebecca Davis, Poetry Editor-at-Large for Boyds Mills Press/Highlights.

Designed For: From budding poet to published veteran, we learn and teach at every stage. If you like to think, talk, write, and share poetry, this one’s for you.

Maximum Capacity: 15 participants

How we’re organized:
SESSION 1: THE STUDY OF POETRY
SESSION 2: VERSE
SESSION 3: ARE YOU FUNNY?
SESSION 4: SKYPE GUEST KENN NESBITT
SESSION 5: REVISING AND REWRITING
SESSION 6: SKYPE GUEST JANE YOLEN
SESSION 7: PERFORMING YOUR WORK
SESSION 8: TIPS ON MARKETING
SESSION 9: SELF PUBLISHING
SESSION 10: POETRY EDITOR REBECCA DAVIS
SESSION 11: BECOMING AN EXPERT
SESSION 12: OPEN FORUM
SESSION 13: THE BIG PERFORMANCE
SESSION 14: SETTING DOABLE GOALS
WRAP UP, PICTURES, GOODBYES

Individual activities will include time to:
• Practice writing what you’re learning
• Be still with your thoughts
• Start at least three new poems
• Meet one-on-one with your workshop leader
• Have your work critiqued by your workshop leader
• Fun, impromptu gatherings by the fire to share poems
• Chance to learn from others

What you will accomplish:
• Write poems
• Practice fundamental elements of poetry
• Return home excited about the new poems you will write

What we will accomplish:
• Make you a better poet
• Create a community of poets

Next year’s workshop

Hi everyone,

The profile of next year’s poetry workshop at the Barn can now be found on the Highlights Foundation Workshop schedule.http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/workshops/poetry-for-the-delight-of-it-2014/. It is a work in progress and I want to quickly clarify a couple of things.

I am the only faculty member. Rebecca Davis, I’m delighted to say, is my special guest for one of the sessions. I have two guests who will ONLY appear via Skype. They are Kenn Nesbitt and Jane Yolen. So far Kenn’s picture and bio are up but Jane’s are not. That will all be corrected shortly.

Lastly, I have not finished the agenda for the 2014 event but hope to get back to it shortly. I’m calling it by the same title, POETRY FOR THE DELIGHT OF IT, because I can’t think of a title that I think represents my kind of workshop any better. For obvious reasons, some of the same general topics are presented and discussed each year, but they never come up quite the same way and every year we gain new insight from our shared conversations.

Three-time attenders — Cory Corrado, Joy Acey, and Jeanne Poland — may tell you, if you wish to ask them, that each year takes on its own character as a result of the group dynamics. No matter where I think I’m headed with a given topic, something new and energizing invariably comes up, quite often because of the poets in attendance.

If you have further questions, I’ll answer them or you can contact Jo Lloyd directly at jalloyd@highlightsfoundation.org .

As of today I know of seven people who have registered for 2014 or said they might. We’re almost halfway there and I’m excited and pleased!

David

Next year’s poetry workshop guests

Hi everyone,

Once again I want to thank J. Patrick Lewis and Renee La Tulippe for being my special Skype guests during the Poetry for the Delight of It workshop and to poetry editor Rebecca Davis for making a personal appearance at The Barn and giving a presentation on what an editor looks for in poetry.

Next year’s workshop has now been set for September 29-October 2 and I’m delighted to announce that my Skype guests will be Jane Yolen http://janeyolen.com/biography

and Kenn Nesbitt http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/poet-laureate.
Kenn, as you know, followed Pat Lewis as the National Children’s Poet Laueate. Jane is, well, Jane!

In addition, Rebecca Davis has kindly accepted my invitation to return to make another presentation.

The program isn’t quite completed yet. I expect to have a segment on performance poetry but don’t have all the pieces in place. I’m still waiting on this year’s valuations to see if I need to add other segments.

As before, my cutoff number is fifteen. I hope to see the quota reached early, maybe by the end of this year, and am aware of some who have already indicated their intentions to register. I hope you’ll let others who might be interested know about the date and guests.

David

Summing up the poetry workshop

Hi everyone,

It was a long trip home with flight delays in Scranton and Chicago. By the time I got home, visited with Sandy, opened mail, and found my bed it was 2:00 this morning. I gave myself an extra hour of sleep but now it’s time to get started.

My thanks to everyone who attended and participated in the poetry workshop these past few days. To my special guests, Pat Lewis, Rebecca Davis, and Renee La Tulippe,
I thank you personally and on behalf of the fifteen poets who sat in your audience and profited greatly from your expertise and generous sharing of your time.

To each of you who attended the workshop, thank you for coming and for joining together into a family of poets who shared willingly and openly during our time together.

Thank you, Joy Acey, for always finding ways to encourage and stimulate fellow writers, from coded golf balls scattered around the property to the group reading of “Shirley the Shark.”

Thank you, Jeanne Poland, for loading your car with the sounds of music. I seriously doubt that many other workshops can boast of forming a percussion band to play and sing under a gorgeous, starlit night.

Thank you, Matt Forrest, for divulging your secret recipe for smores.

Thank you, Jo Lloyd, for taking care of each and every detail to make it all work so smoothly. To Chef Joseph and your staff, I blame you for the extra three pounds I brought home, but I bet I’m not the only one who couldn’t resist going back for seconds and who kept shoveling down dessert night after night.

To Kent Brown, Jan Cheripko, Larry Rosler, and other distinguished guests who came by to share meals and sit in on sessions, my sincere gratitude. Janet Fagal, thanks for driving out for a visit and to meet the rest of the group. I hope that you can sign up for next year’s workshop.

Speaking of next year, the date has been set for September 29 – October 2. I think we already have a few names on the list so let Jo Lloyd know if you might be interested. If you thought that your workshop experience was worthwhile, I hope you’ll share your thoughts with others who might enjoy the experience. As anyone who has been there knows, it’s hard to imagine a more inspiring setting for a workshop than The Barn and surrounding land that beckons from the home of the founders of Highlights Magazine for Children.