Queer Poetry Workshop!

 

Queer Poetry Workshop

*An eight-week class*

with Colleen McKee

 

*About the workshop

 

In an environment of honesty and encouragement, queer writers of all levels of experience will stretch their poetic muscles. We’ll try a variety of topics, moods, and structures. We’ll explore what it means to write poetry that can celebrate as well as mourn, be silly as well as serious, that honors the body yet is intellectual. We will also explore the process of writing, what hinders us and what pushes us further. To help us explore new directions and unknown strengths, we’ll use the book The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux.  

 

In addition, we’ll learn about the history of queer poets and their poetry. As we only have 8 weeks, we’ll focus on writers who have lived in the U.S., writers from different backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, culture, age, gender/gender expression, sexual orientation, region, and country of origin. We’ll mostly study writers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, brave poets who tried different styles and who belong/ed to various poetic schools or circles. So we’ll read work from Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry, edited by Timothy Liu, as well as poems we can find online at Lavender Review, a queer women’s literary journal, and possibly other work online.  

 

(What do I mean by queer? Gay, lesbian, bisexual/pansexual, transgender, gender non-binary, etc…)

 

The class is limited to four students.

 

*About the instructor

 

Colleen Shoshana McKee earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she taught English, and Gender Studies, including classes on queer literature and creative writing. Her 20 years of teaching experience also includes many small creative writing workshops for adults. She is the author of 6 books of poetry, memoir, and fiction. Her latest collection of poetry, Routine Bloodwork, was aa finalist for the Charlotte Mew Award from Headmistress Press, a queer women’s press.

 

*Class details

 

~ Sundays, 12-2 pm. (with a 10-min. break)

~ Meets online (Zoom or Google Meet) from May 30^th-July 18^th, 2021

~ Tuition Cost: $280 (ask if you need an installment plan)

~ For more information or to register for the class, contact Colleen Shoshana at 314.898.8289, at misscolleenmckee@yahoo.com, or on Facebook.