1 Saturday, July 23, 10am-4pm Berkeley
$95 members/$110 others
Testimonials for Kathleen
Poet Stanley Kunitz wrote: “Poems would be easy if our heads weren’t so full of the day’s clatter. The task is to get through to the other side, where we can hear the deep rhythms that connect us with the stars and the tides.”
This workshop honors all those inklings and desires to get through to the other side and write new poems. “I meet so many people who long to express themselves artistically but don’t feel they have time or space,” says instructor Kathleen McClung. “Well, summer’s the perfect time, and the Writing Salon is definitely a comfortable, supportive space. Everybody’s welcome in this workshop, first-timers as well as repeaters.”
In our day together we’ll read and talk about an array of accessible, provocative poems by a variety of fine writers, and we’ll do some whimsical, illuminating writing exercises to bypass our inner critics and experiment with themes and tones, phrases and rhythms. We’ll listen closely and encouragingly to each other’s voices. We’ll take some risks and leaps. By the end of the day we’ll shape a handful of budding new poems, sharpen our vision for future writing projects, and expand our knowledge about the wealth of resources available to Bay Area poets—the stars and the tides, as well as readings, contests, publication opportunities, and more.
Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the craft of poetry, but a small group of friendly, focused people—both new and experienced poets—can knit enough crazy, colorful sweaters to keep a muse warm all year.
Kathleen McClung is the author of Almost the Rowboat (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and her poems appear in Mezzo Cammin, Unsplendid, Atlanta Review, Ekphrasis, Heron Tree, Poets 11, Zoomorphic, Sin Fronteras, Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace, and elsewhere. A Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Rita Dove poetry award, Kathleen has been a finalist for the Morton Marr and Margaret Reid poetry prizes and has won awards from the Bay Area Poets Coalition, Ina Coolbrith Circle, Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Connecticut and Illinois poetry societies, and Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota. Sponsor-judge of the sonnet category of the Soul-Making Keats literary competition, she teaches writing and literature classes at Skyline College and coordinates Women on Writing (WOW) community events. www.kathleenmcclung.com