Calling all poets! Creative writers Lydia Copeland Gwyn and Sarah Bull will lead a poetry workshop for ages 18 and older on Wednesday, April 2 at 6 p.m. in the Library’s Jones Meeting Center.
You can bring a personal project to work on and share with fellow poets. If you’re looking for inspiration, Gwyn and Bull will also provide writing prompts and lead guided exercises. Make sure to bring a pen and paper or laptop to write with.
Poets Gwyn and Bull, who are also librarians at ETSU, will facilitate the workshop using a model they’ve implemented at the university’s Creative Writing Club.
We talked recently with Gwyn about what participants can gain from the workshop and why these types of experiences are important for creative writers.
JCPL: What can participants expect from your workshop?
GWYN: We’ll focus on ways to write more vibrant poems by exploring language and imagery-based exercises to add specificity, concrete details, vivid descriptions, and musical language to create poems to which readers can connect. Participants can expect lots of inspiration in the form of poems that embody imagery and use language in creative ways, and they can expect a few writing prompts.
This is a generative workshop. Our ultimate goal is for participants to come away not only feeling inspired to write, but to have a solid draft or two of a poem they can leave with.
How can attending a poetry workshop help writers break through creative blocks and find inspiration?
These kinds of workshops can expose writers to new authors and new ways of writing. We’ll be reading and discussing a few poems in this workshop, and participants will also have a chance to share what they’ve written in response to our prompts. Hearing how someone else responded to the same prompt as you can be quite inspiring. And of course, one of the best things about attending workshops like these is getting the chance to meet other writers and to be around a group of creative people. I think writers will find a great deal of inspiration in each other.
What’s something surprising or unexpected that you’ve seen happen in poetry workshops?
The quality of work that comes out of these workshops always amazes me. We do quick, intense writing prompts in our workshops at the Library at ETSU, which means writers don’t have a lot of time to self-censor or listen to their inner critics. I’ve seen this result in some stellar poems.
Why is it important to connect with other poets, and what can participants gain from sharing their work in a group setting?
I recently joined a poetry workshop myself, and it has brought so much joy into my life. Aside from Sarah [Bull], I’m not consistently around other writers, but joining a workshop has given me a sense of community with a shared purpose. I’ve also enjoyed learning from poets who are more experienced than I am.
Joining a workshop exposes you to many different perspectives, which is great for feedback on your poems, and it also strengthens your own analytical skills.
I’m a much better reader of poems now that I’ve joined a workshop. I hope participants in this workshop come away inspired and excited to write and that they possibly make some new friends.
Lydia Copeland Gwyn has published over 200 stories, poems, and essays. She’s the author of the flash fiction collections You’ll Never Find Another and Tiny Doors. Gwyn works as an instruction librarian at ETSU’s Sherrod Library and as a part-time instructor in Cross-Disciplinary Studies.
Visit our events calendar to find more upcoming opportunities for people of all ages. Follow Johnson City Public Library on Facebook and Instagram to receive updates about Library programs, collections, and services.
More News
