The 15th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival took place January 21-26, 2019. Faculty included: Ellen Bass, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Stuart Dischell, Aracelis Girmay, Campbell McGrath, Gregory Pardlo, Matthew Olzmann, Chase Twichell, Eleanor Wilner, Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown and Stephen Gibson. Special Guest: Sharon Olds, and Poet-At-Large, Tyehimba Jess. Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs co-taught a workshop. Attending festival events offered several opportunities to be inspired by some of America’s most engaging and award-winning poets.
2019 Festival Lineup included:
IMITATION, INTEGRATION, INNOVATION: LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS with ELLEN BASS
“Imitation, conscious imitation, is one of the great methods, perhaps the method of learning to write,” said Theodore Roethke. In this workshop we’ll consider a variety of contemporary poems that demonstrate specific aspects of the ... Read more >
WAIT… LET ME REPHRASE THIS with LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR
Many poets find it challenging to revise their work without the help of a workshop group or mentor. This inter-active workshop will focus on how can we acquire the tools we need to revise poems ... Read more >
NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE with STUART DISCHELL
This workshop will consider the conscious and unconscious choices writers face regarding the structures and strategies of their poems. We will look closely at the way poems are made and organized and the manners in ... Read more >
BUILDING POEMS FROM THE GROUND UP with CAMPBELL MCGRATH
Poetry is often accused of being a flighty and ephemeral art, but even the most impalpable of materials can yield dynamic poems when we ground them in the real world. Language is rooted in the ... Read more >
STRATEGIES OF ASTONISHMENT with MATTHEW OLZMANN
How does a poem surprise its readers? How does a shift in direction cause a poem to resonate in an evocative manner? How do we move beyond our initial subject matter to produce unexpected revelations? ... Read more >
THROW YOUR VOICE: HOW TO CRAFT A PRESENCE ON THE PAGE with GREGORY PARDLO
Voice partakes of a dynamic conversation across history, languages, cultures, and traditions. Yet few notions in poetry today prove as lively, elusive, and contested as voice. Whether we think of voice as a metaphor for ... Read more >
INVOKING THE MUSE with ELEANOR WILNER
How to get out of the way, invite the imagination, and surprise yourself. Our workshop will be looking for ways to invite a power that won’t be commanded, to improve our poetic luck, change our ... Read more >
POWERS OF THE STRANGE + PARTICULAR with ARACELIS GIRMAY
In this workshop we will consider the ways that reading or writing a poem might be an act of resuscitation. An awakening of one’s “sight,” mind and questions. We will read the work of writers ... Read more >
2019 Poet At Large: Tyehimba Jess
For the first time, the festival will feature a Poet At Large. The role of the Poet At Large will be to appear for a special evening reading on Friday, January 25th, as well as ... Read more >
2019 Special Guest, Sharon Olds
The festival welcomes Sharon Olds who returns to the festival as our Special Guest and to deliver the annual Thomas Lux Memorial Reading. Read more >
THE POEM’S SKELETON with CHASE TWICHELL
Why do some poems seem to arrive on the page with a life of their own, while others refuse to breathe no matter how much we revise them? Often the answer lies in the relationship ... Read more >