Thank you for your interest in Cave Canem!
Deadline to apply: August 12, 2024, 11:59 PM (ET)
Workshop Period: Tuesdays, September 10 - November 5 | 6 PM - 9 PM CDT
Workshops held at Inprint House 1520 W Main St, Houston, TX 77006
Public Reading: November 12, 2024
About the Workshop
This workshop will explore multiple writing and revision techniques, drawing possibilities for new work from participants' own work and the poems by Yusef Komunyakaa, Jamaica Kincaid, Kim Addonizio, and Lucille Clifton among others. In addition, poets will learn to open up their poems to further invention and revise toward the invitation of mastery and surprise. The group will also read specific poems and essays to encourage shared discussions about the craft.
Participants will implement literary devices such as metaphor and personification and the significance of powerful line breaks & points of view. Throughout the course, students will also imitate model texts from the aforementioned poets in an effort to understand how a voice is shaped.
In the tenth week of the workshop, the cohort will celebrate their work by presenting a public reading.
About the Instructor
Jonathan Moody received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh where he was also a Cave Canem fellow. He is the published author of The Doomy Poems and Olympic Butter Gold (winner of the 2014 Cave Canem/Northwestern University Poetry Press Prize). His work has appeared in African American Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Common, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review and is forthcoming in the anthology Dear Mr. Yusef: Essays, Letters, and Poems, For and About One Mr. Komunyakaa.
Moody teaches AP English at South Houston High School and lives in Pearland, TX, with his wife and three sons.
Eligability & Guidelines
Any adult (18 or older) Black poet of any experience level who is a resident of the city or immediate surrounding area may apply to participate in the workshop. Cave Canem defines Black poets as any poet who identifies as a member of the African Diaspora.
Applicants must submit five original poems and a short cover letter through the Submittable application. One application per poet will be accepted. Please note that all workshop participants are required to take a post-workshop survey after the conclusion of the program. Photos of participants may be taken throughout the workshops and reading.
Deadline to apply: August 20, 2024, 11:59 PM (ET)
Workshop Period: Wednesdays, September 18 - November 13, 2024 | 6 PM - 9 PM ET
Workshops held at Cave Canem Offices Suite 310-A, 20 Jay St. Brooklyn, NY 11201
Public Reading: November 20
About the Workshop
This generative writing workshop will aim to explore the question of what it means to be Black and write poems in which the natural world appears. But also to stir wonder, curiosity, and attentiveness to the world we walk through daily and the craft of shaping it on the page. Participants will draft a new poem each week and have the opportunity to workshop at least three poem drafts. The workshop will culminate in a public reading. Participants may read poems by Ariana Benson, Thylias Moss, Jericho Brown, Marilyn Nelson, and Carl Phillips, among others.
In the tenth week of the workshop, the cohort will celebrate their work by presenting a public reading.
About the Instructor
Nathan McClain is the author of two collections of poetry: Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and Scale (Four Way Books, 2017). He is a recipient of fellowships from The Frost Place, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and is a Cave Canem fellow. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. His poems and prose have appeared in The Hopkins Review, Plume Poetry 10, The Common, Poetry Northwest, and Guesthouse, among others. He teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.
Eligability & Guidelines
Any adult (18 or older) Black poet of any experience level who is a resident of the city or immediate surrounding area may apply to participate in the workshop. Cave Canem defines Black poets as any poet who identifies as a member of the African Diaspora.
Applicants must submit five original poems and a short cover letter through the Submittable application. One application per poet will be accepted. Please note that all workshop participants are required to take a post-workshop survey after the conclusion of the program. Photos of participants may be taken throughout the workshops and reading.