Jun
23
to Jun 28

The Intersection of Comedy and Poetry at the Iowa Summer Writer's Festival in Iowa City

This summer, meet me at “The Intersection of Comedy and Poetry” for a week-long face-to-face class at the Iowa Summer Writer's Festival in Iowa City, the Athens of Iowa! Our goal will be to meaningfully expand the landscape in our poems through techniques employed by comedians, poets, and hybrid poemedians.

We’ll explore different theories and styles of humor through the strategies, tools, and forms employed by poets and comedians to different effects. By the end of our session, you’ll have three workshopped drafts of new poems and the seeds of many more and your responses to an untamed array of prompts.

SCHEDULE

Sunday: Expecting Expectations

Wikihow’s thwarting our expectations again.

Monday: The Incongruity Theory & Benign ViolationS

ca conrad, benignly violating our expectations of Poetry

Tuesday: Surprise IN Sound, Subject, DICTION & Form

Figure 3. Bernadette Mayer, crushing expectations though form and boozes

Wednesday: Self-Enhancing Humor & Affiliative Humor

note, passed to superman

sweet jesus superman,
if i had seen you
dressed in your blue suit
i would have known you.
maybe that choir boyclark
can stand around
listening to stories
but not you, not with
metropolis to save
and every crook in town
filthy with kryptonite.
lord, man of steel
i understand the cape,
the leggings, the whole
ball of wax.
you can trust me,
there is no planet stranger
than the one i'm from.

—Lucille Clifton

Thursday: The Relief Theory, the Superiority Theory & Gallows Humor

Gallows Humor by David Borchard

Friday: Avant-garde, absurdism & cringe

CLASS ORGANIZATION

This is a generative poetry writing workshop. Our time will be divided between Gathering (forming new ideas, insights, and connections) and Application (practice and evaluation).

Our Gathering will be fueled by reading, listening, watching, analyzing, discussing, and reflecting; our Application will be fueled by writing, workshopping, and editing. My brain craves verbs, so both tasks will intersect frequently and, hopefully, in unexpected ways because your surprise begets surprise for your readers, which is our ultimate goal (more on this in class).

At the end of every class, you will receive a topic for your next poem and one or two poems, videos, audio recordings, memes, etc. to ingest before the next class.

WORKSHOPS

Because your drafts of new poems will be VERY new, I recommend using Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (CRP) in our workshops. The goal of CRP is to make giving and getting feedback on work in progress more effective, thereby making the Maker eager and motivated to continue their work. It offers the maker an active role in the critique of their work and opportunities to rehearse the connections they seek when their art meets an audience. Visit the CRP website for more information.

InterEsted?

Take the Humor Styles quiz below. Do the results align with your self-perception?
https://www.idrlabs.com/humor-styles/test.php
If this information fascinates you…
SIGN UP HERE

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Apr
20
to Apr 21

"Exploring Your Ugly Side" at Poetry Palooza in Des Moines!

You are cordially invited to my FREE Poetry Palooza workshop on Sat, April 20 from 10am-11:30am, in which we’ll practice creating surprise in our poems by welcoming in the UGLY. 

Why drag ugly into our poems? Isn't the world ugly enough? Because “Ugly” changes us...for the better. Ugly images, sounds and forms cause US to adjust OUR moods and refocus. That’s right! “Ugly” makes us rethink and alter our responses to stimuli, which is, technically, a superhero power.

We'll talk about what "ugly" really is to our brains, and how we can harness its power, no matter how we write or what we write about.

Hope to see you there!

Most words that people associate with “ugly” aren’t.

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Oct
23
to Oct 27

"The Intersection of Comedy & Poetry" at FAWC/24 Pearl Street

October 23 to October 27, 2023
1 Week Asynchronous Workshop

Perhaps I was BORN to teach it! Perhaps I was born to DIE teaching it!!! For me, it's a bucket list-level dream come true, for you, it's asynchronous, so you can do it in your jammies, and for the whole dang planet, it's part of the 24PearlStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center Online Writing Program!

****

Comedy and poetry have much in common. They both transform highly subjective sensory experiences into transcendent social responses. And they both create surprise—the Yahtzee of all social responses—which motivates us to re-engage with increasingly complex tasks and environments.

In this generative workshop, we will explore theories of how humor works alongside examples of comedic poems and poetic stand-ups. In daily exercises, we'll test-drive rhetorical tools used by stand-ups and humor writers that can move your readers from laughter to awe, such as exaggerations, self-depreciation, contradictions, and meta-statements.

We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll honk at passersby.

At 24PearlStreet, you can find online workshops, events, resources, and community. 24PearlStreet provides everything you need to work on your craft and connect with other writers, wherever you are, year-round.

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Aug
26
1:00 PM13:00

The Writers Lab @ Dog-eared Books: Discovering Surprise

This Writers Lab workshop is FREE* and open to all.

In this FUN two-hour generative writing session, we’ll read, discuss, and write short experiments that evoke surprise by thwarting our automatic minds and expectations. The most engaging writing is driven by exploration, not a blueprint or a recipe. Let your subconscious take the wheel!

In her book,  Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot, Neuroscientist Vera Tobin explains that surprised readers are more engaged with the page, because the surprised brain releases dopamine, which heightens our pleasure and sense of connection to the text and our fellow humans. Dopamine engages the reward center of our brains, which scientists believe is an adaptive response.

Moreover, studies have shown that surprise increases the intensity of all feelings—not just happy ones—a whopping 400%. 

“Until recently, scientists assumed that the neural reward pathways, which act as high-speed Internet connections to the pleasure centers of the brain, responded to what people like,” Read Montague of Baylor College of Medicine explains. “However, when we tested this idea in brain scanning experiments, we found that reward pathways responded much more strongly to the unexpectedness of stimuli instead of their pleasurable effects…This means that the brain finds unexpected pleasures more rewarding than expected ones, and it may have little to do with what people say they like.” —Scientific American

Wait, whuh?


Wake up, brain! It’s the dawning of surprise!

Surprised readers are also more likely to find your writing unforgettable—literally—because surprise enables us to retain what we’ve read longer; surprise is, in fact, one of the greatest predictors of information retention.

But how do we outrun our automatic minds and expectations? By applying both subjective and objective conscious visualization strategies that help us to zig instead of zag. All you need to bring is a notebook and a pencil. The workshop is open to writers at all levels and all styles of writing: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, etc.

I promise it’ll be as fun or funner than a Theresa Caputo show *or your money back!

Hope to see you there!

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Jan
11
to Feb 1

Exploring Your Ugly Streak

Grackle art by Ceallak Monster

$280.00
4 Wed Evenings
Writing Poetry w/ Jennifer L. Knox
starts Jan 12 // 6 to 9 pm
At Grackle & Grackle in Houston, TX

I love ugly. In both our poems and our brains, ugliness is “heavier” than beauty. Neuroimaging studies have shown that “ugly” art mobilizes the flight mechanism in our brains more intensely than “beauty,” which makes us want to run away from “ugly” faster. So why write poems about ugly things that make people want to run away? Because if everything in our poems is beautiful (or sexy or wistful or whatever), nothing is, and ugliness is a bracing counter-ballast to the easier moves we make out of habit. Ugly wakes up the poet and the reader.

Umberto Eco said, “Beauty is detachment, absence of passion. Ugliness, by contrast, is passion.” By this logic, we might be living in a Golden Age of Passion! 

Moreover, ugliness emits 100,000 times more ambivalence than beauty, and if you write poetry, you’ve probably made out with ambivalence in a public restroom more than once. Now that’s ugly!

This class is for intermediate poets who want to explore their idiosyncratic manifestations of ugliness in order to conjure ambivalence, surprise our readers, and deepen the empathetic capacity of our poems. In every session, we’ll read and discuss poems that explore ugly images, settings, subjects, diction, forms and voices; we’ll write and workshop poems that explore ugliness in the body, the brain, and the world.

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Mar
28
2:00 PM14:00

The Pitfalls & Pleasures of Publishing for OLLI

With Rachel Mans McKenny, Mikesch Muecke, and instructor, Ana McCracken for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Iowa State University.

“Your laptop runneth over with poems and stories. Now what? Do you seek publication? How do you do that? In this two-hour panel discussion, a traditionally published novelist, a well-published poet, and a local Ames, Iowa publisher will share best-practices for preparing and submitting your work to avoid pitfalls on the road to publication.”

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Mar
9
to Mar 30

"I'm Having a Moment": The Soliloquy with Jason Schneiderman

I’m trilled to be teaching this Grackle & Grackle Poetry Knockout session with my dear friend, Jason Schneiderman!
https://grackleandgrackle.com/product/knockoutw22-2/

Grackle and Grackle’s Poetry Knockout series brings some of the country’s favorite, award-winning poets in to teach advanced poetry students, via Zoom. In this topical Knockout, Jason and Jennifer will alternate each session for four weeks as we explore the soliloquy through readings, discussion, workshops, and in-class generative exercises. Before class begins, students will receive poems for the first night’s discussion. Starting the second week, class will commence with workshopping new poems, written during the previous week, based on ideas and prompts discussed in class. Poems for Wednesday workshops are due on Monday prior, noon CT.

This is will be an advanced class, open to poets who have taken multiple writing classes already. Please email Miah at G&G if you have any questions about it.

About The Soliloquy, The Class & The Poets

A soliloquy is a special kind of monologue, delivered by an actor in the absence of the other characters. The conceit is that the character is alone, and therefore can tell the truth, but guess what, audience, you’re right there. And chances are, if a character needs a soliloquy, their obligation to truth and their internal motivations are at odds.

In poetry, the soliloquy spurs the speaker to make a case—both to themselves and to their overhearing audience. In crafting this internal argument, the poet is spurred to risky thoughts, dizzying extrapolations, and exploration of the subconsciousness’ endless catacombs. Soliloquies hand us new tools: contradictions, clashing vernacular—and because no one (with the exception of psychopaths) sounds like Shakespeare in their own heads—inarticulateness, and even animal sounds (see Browning’s “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”). When we untether ourselves from sense, context, and resolution, exciting things start to happen as the lines of trust, truth, and voice are crossed and remixed.

Jason Schneiderman is the author of four books of poems, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen 2020). He edited the anthology Queer: A Reader for Writers (Oxford UP 2016). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies; he is a longstanding co-host of the podcast Painted Bride Quarterly Slush Pile. His awards include the Shestack Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. He is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

First four Wednesday Evenings in March
with Jennifer Knox & Jason Schneiderman
March 2-23  // 5:30-8:30 Central
$200.00

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Jan
4
to Jan 6

"Engineering Surprise" for Cornell College's Low Res MFA Program

In this class, we will read, discuss, and write short works of prose designed to evoke surprise by thwarting your automatic mind and your reader’s expectations. I hope you’ll find these sentence-level techniques valuable and adaptable.

Perhaps you find the idea of surprises corny. Perhaps the word “thwarting” resonates as stingy and manipulative, even downright deceptive, but technically that’s what surprise is: thwarted certainty. You’re certain a thing will happen, but it doesn’t, or certain a thing that can’t possibly happen does. Imagine you’re in your living room on a rainy afternoon watching Netflix when a possum casually waddles in. Wait…is that really a possum? You’ve never seen a possum up close, but you’re 99% sure that that greasy ghost-faced Muppet with beady black eyes and a nasty pink tail is a possum. “What the…?” you gasp. It humpty-dumps across the rug then fwoop—disappears under the couch. The impossible has happened. You pull on your tallest leather boots and heaviest gloves, prop open the front door, and grab the broom. Your plan is to skooch the couch away from the wall and shoo the possum out. Nothing. You skooch the couch further and further from the wall, until—with one eye on the floor and the other on the door—you flip the whole thing over to find…a pair of nail clippers, dust bunnies, but no possum. The impossible has happened again. You never expected to see a possum, but then you did, and now its absence will haunt you for the rest of your life.

The mechanism of surprise will help you hold the reader’s attention. In her book,  Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot, Neuroscientist Vera Tobin explains that surprised readers are more engaged with the page, because the surprised brain releases dopamine, which heightens our pleasure and sense of connection to the text and our fellow humans. Yahtzee! Dopamine engages the reward center of our brains, which scientists believe is an adaptive response.

Moreover, studies have shown that surprise increases the intensity of all feelings—not just happy ones—a whopping 400%. 

“Until recently, scientists assumed that the neural reward pathways, which act as high-speed Internet connections to the pleasure centers of the brain, responded to what people like,” Read Montague of Baylor College of Medicine explains. “However, when we tested this idea in brain scanning experiments, we found that reward pathways responded much more strongly to the unexpectedness of stimuli instead of their pleasurable effects…This means that the brain finds unexpected pleasures more rewarding than expected ones, and it may have little to do with what people say they like.” —Scientific American

Surprised readers are also more likely to find your story unforgettable—literally—because surprise enables us to retain what we’ve read longer; surprise is, in fact, one of the greatest predictors of information retention.

Creating surprise requires empathy and an understanding of what other people know. The flip side of this coin is subjectivity—the voice emanating from our unique personal histories, bodies, families, and perspectives—the voice that undoubtedly drew you to writing in the first place. We start writing for ourselves, for the way it makes us feel, for the permission and power it gives us to reexamine our stories. It is this unique, subjective voice that will draw readers in. So if you’re thinking, “Forget faceless readers. I want to show The World what it's like to live in my skin,” you don’t have to choose. Engaging writing incorporates both cardinal points on the compass—subjectivity and empathy. Any jazz musician will tell you, when the band swings from solo to synchronicity and back again, that’s when the audience goes apesh*t.

The shift between the objective and subjective, the group and the individual, can occur subconsciously, in mid-sentence, much like in the murmurations of starlings. Note how the solo birds zip willy-nilly on the edges of the swarm until suddenly—boom—they sync with the undulating mass, disengage, sync, disengage, ad infinitum.

Credit: Menno Schaefer / shutterstock

Ultimately, surprise is a gift that you can give yourself by paying attention to the opportunities you’ve created on the page, because the process of lively writing is driven by exploration, not execution. You’re not following a blueprint or a recipe. Thank goodness. This class invites you to let your subconscious take the wheel.

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Jun
24
to Jul 15

2019: Summer Strange Series: Writing Outside the Rut

Do the same images or people pop up in your poems again and again? When you start to write a poem, do you know how it’s going to end? Do your besties ask you, “Is this poem about [insert name of ex here]?” If the answer’s “yes,” you may be in a writing rut.

Most of us are in some kind of rut, because a rut is the brain’s strategy for avoiding failure and expediting processes. As the creative brain is the same brain that goes to work and the grocery store and brushes our teeth, etc., it’s always looking for ways to accomplish tasks more efficiently. It does so by skipping over details we already know. If we had to re-learn how to brush our teeth every time we did it, we’d never make it out of the house.

A writing rut is our brain’s way of saying, “I know a short cut to the end of this poem, so I don’t have to sit here in front of my computer and feel/think new things, which are scary and might make me look stupid.” So we often unconsciously begin the writing process in a familiar head space, writing in the same way, using the same diction, images or form.

These four sessions will help us consciously connect to our unconscious minds while adding new strategies to our poetry tool chests. We'll approach the subject visually, sonically, through the image, and the speaker’s voice. Ideally by the end of the series, the practice of writing should feel less like practice and more about surprising yourself with what is already in your head.

Each week, we’ll read, discuss and write poems based on innovative work by contemporary poets. Students will post the poems they’ve written based on the prompts in the online forum for feedback from other students and myself.

WHAT WILL WE DO?
* Meet in Zoom meeting for four one-hour sessions. These will be viewable on video anytime, so if you can’t make some sessions, you can still take the class and fully participate.
* Read (prior to class) and discuss (in class) the work of contemporary poets (one poem per week).
* Write on different prompts during our sessions to get us loosened up
* Write four poems, one per week, based on prompts and post them in an online forum.
* Read and comment on the poems of other students outside class (est. time = 1/2 hour per week) in the online forum.

WHERE WILL CLASS BE?
The class will be held online via Zoom Meeting, and the class video will be available online. We’ll post our poems and comment on others’ poems in an online forum. You'll need a desktop computer, smart phone or tablet, with a camera if you want to be seen and a mic if you want to be heard. We’ll be able to see each other all at once on a grid, as well as see the websites and your work on the screen.

Summer Strange Series: Writing Outside the Rut
sold out
Summer Strange Series: Writing Outside the Rut
$120.00

15 spots, all levels
There will be four live classes that you can watch via video anytime. So if you can’t make a session, you can watch it at your leisure and still participate.

Live Class Time: Mondays, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. central time
Live Class Dates:
Monday, June 24
Monday, July 1
Monday, July 8
Monday, July 15

$10 from every sign-up will go to the Midwest Writing Center, which facilitates the work of writers of all ages and teachers through conferences, workshops, contests, readings, and discussions. MWC Members receive $10 off the sign up fee with code at checkout. Email MWC for the code.

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Mar
2
1:00 PM13:00

Publishing Your Poems

“Jennifer is kind and evaluates work with a big heart and a sharp eye. You will come out of her classes ready to take on the world of submissions!"

”The class and Jennifer are terrific! Great for folks who have never submitted and are not sure how and where to start.”

Writing is a personal process that can bring us solace while simultaneously connecting us to the universe. Sharing your writing through publishing is a totally different ballgame. If you’re ready to get your poems off your hard drive and into a magazine or even a book, this class is for you.

”What kind of poetry do you write?” can be a daunting question, but we must answer it in order to determine what publications are good fits for our work. So we’ll begin with a self-assessment of style. We’ll tour a few online publication directories, and discuss how organization affects the information we receive. We’ll analyze some very different publications to see how submission rules vary, and how to spot a good match for your work. We’ll walk though Submittable, the most widely used online submission tool. We’ll wrap up with tips for book contests and handling acceptances AND rejections.

By Monday, February 25, choose five poems you feel are ready (or almost) to be published and send them to me. I’ll send you the instructions for your submission after you register.

WHAT WILL WE DO?
* Choose and email 5 poems by 2/25
* Complete a style self-assessment and share the results
* Visit online publication databases
* Analyze the needs of different publications and presses to see if your work is a good fit
* Walk through the Submittable process and tracking submissions
* Discuss cover letters, submission guidelines and contests

WHERE WILL CLASS BE?
The class will be held online via Zoom Meeting—you'll need a desktop computer, smart phone or tablet (with a camera if you want to be seen). I’ll email you a link, you’ll click on it at 1 pm midwest time. We’ll be able to see each other all at once on a grid, as well as see the websites and your work on the screen.

Publishing Your Poems
Publishing Your Poems
$60.00

Class: Saturday, March 2
Sign up deadline: CHANGED TO FRIDAY, MARCH 1! But the sooner you sign up and send your poems, the more time I’ll have to give them feedback.
Select and submit five poems in one file by the deadline. Instructions for the submission will be emailed to you when you register.

20 spots, all levels, 1-3 pm Iowa Time
Email jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

$10 from every sign-up will go to the Midwest Writing Center, which facilitates the work of writers of all ages and teachers through conferences, workshops, contests, readings, and discussions. MWC Members receive $10 off the sign up fee with code at checkout.

Image by Loïs Marcinkowski. It occurred to me that publishing is like sending poems into space.

Quantity:
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The payee on your credit card or bank statement will show as Saltlickers (and if you’re wondering what that’s all about, click here!).

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Oct
28
10:00 AM10:00

"Writing Poems that KILL!!!!!!!!!!"
$150.00

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2018
10 spots, Intermediate level, $150
10 am Iowa time-4 pm with breaks for writing/lunch.
Email jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

Quantity:
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When most people think of "poetry," they think, "love," "heartbreak," "beauty," and "nature." They don't think "Richard Ramirez, AKA the Nightstalker." But there IS a thrilling intersection between poetry and crime, noir, detective lit, suspense, and horror that's dying to be explored.

Normally, poetry lights up the same part of the brain that music and meditation engages—heightening our introspectiveness. It's an "I" thing. But suspense and fear light up the same part of the brain that comedy engages: surprise. After the adrenaline drains, we feel more interconnected, like we're all in the same boat. It's a "we" thing, and we're going to tap into that "we.” As all writing is a way of understanding and engaging with the world, writing about these subjects can help us view actually traumatic situations in a less triggering way.

WHAT WILL WE DO?
* Read 8 poems before class starts
* Observe and compile an informal list of thoughts on a topic before class starts
* Write responses to 6 prompts during class
* Read and comment on the work of other participants during class

WHERE WILL CLASS BE?
The class will be held online via Zoom Meeting—you'll need a desktop computer, smart phone or tablet (with a camera if you want to be seen). I’ll email you a link, you’ll click on it at 10 am midwest time on Sunday. We’ll be able to see each other all at once on a grid, as well as read poems on the screen. When you're finished writing a poem, you’ll upload it to a shared folder; I’ll post it on screen, so everyone can read and discuss. 

UPDATE: The materials are ready to peruse. If you’d like a sneak peek, email me at jenniferlknox @ gmail.

10-10:45 am
Introductions
Inventory: what scares us
Creating fear, suspense, and narrative in the limited, distilled space of a poem

10:45-11:30 am
Poem 1: Hypnagogic hallucinations
“I wake to sleep”
Writing, reading and discussion

11:30-11:45 am
Break

11:45-12:30 am
Poem 2: True crime and DNA
”Not buried deep enough”
Writing, reading and discussion

12:30-1:00 pm
Lunch, stretch, meditation break

1:00-1:45 pm
Poem 3: Mass psychogenic illness 
”What’s up with all the zombie movies?”
Writing, reading and discussion

1:45-2:30 pm
Poem 4: Voices of the dead 
”Know-it-alls”
Model: Margaret Atwood, "This is a Photograph of Me"
Writing, reading and discussion

2:30-2:45 pm
Break

2:45-3:30 pm
Poem 5: The Shadow 
”It's been inside you all along”
Writing, reading and discussion

3:30-4:00 pm
Poem 6, lightning round: Ghost stories
”Bloody Mary”
Writing and reading

#ssadgm

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Aug
12
2:00 PM14:00

SOLD OUT Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 22
10 spots
$150 for six sessions
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
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Aug
5
2:00 PM14:00

SOLD OUT Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 22
10 spots
$150 for six sessions
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jul
29
2:00 PM14:00

SOLD OUT Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 22
10 spots
$150 for six sessions
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jul
22
2:00 PM14:00

SOLD OUT Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 22
10 spots
$150 for six sessions
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jul
15
2:00 PM14:00

SOLD OUT Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 22
10 spots
$150 for six sessions
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jul
8
2:00 PM14:00

SOLD OUT Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 22
10 spots
$150 for six sessions
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
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Mar
25
10:00 AM10:00

SOLD OUT! Writing from Your Intuition & Subconscious Mind

Sorry, this class is sold out! Sign up for our class email list at jenniferlknox at gmail.com for a head's up on classes.

You don't have to be a special super-sensitive genius to write poems. Your mind already has everything it needs, but logical sense often gets in the way. Allowing your subconscious mind to drive a poem is a thrilling experience—one beyond words—that connects you to the universe. But how can you tap into it? We'll dust off the cobwebs of winter and spring clean our brains with prompts that work our intuition through sound, deep images and pure nonsense. All levels welcome but a fair tolerance of ambiguity is recommended. 

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DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: March 16, 2018
10 spots
All levels
$80
10 am Iowa time-4 pm with breaks for writing/lunch.
Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

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Jan
15
6:00 PM18:00

Graduate Poetry Writing at Iowa State University

Cédric Villani & His Prepared Mind

Cédric Villani & His Prepared Mind

Spring 2018, Mondays, 6-9 pm
Open to former 306 students

In his book on the origin of ideas, Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure, mathematician Cédric Villani concludes that illumination cannot occur in a vacuum. It presents itself to the “prepared mind” in a process that moves from hard work to illumination then back to hard work. That hard work and preparation, according to Villani, entails seeking out diverse ideas, solutions, thought processes, etc. and incorporating them into what we already know—i.e. folding new ingredients into our cake batter. Our work in this workshop will be to prepare our minds for illumination.

As a facilitator, my goal is to create a space where diverse ideas are heard, valued, and can be acted upon. The workshop is the ideal setting for this exchange, which is why poets at all levels return to workshops, residencies, writing communities, etc.: the more contact with ideas and artists who differ from us, the more connected, relevant and awake our work will be.

We’re all trying to make different music. Some of us are trying to make music that hasn’t been heard yet—not even by the people who are trying to make it. To pursue music that has yet to be heard (only knowing it must be heard) is difficult. My objective is to create a community in which those poets can manifest their unprecedented solutions to the unprecedented troubles of our time. Other poets have heard the music they’re working hard to make. Let’s listen to it.

The community we build together could be one of your strongest assets as a writer. That’s not hype. While my MFA professors at New York University had a profound impact on my poems, my classmates continue to have a profound impact on my life—from artistic and emotional support to professional opportunities—over fifteen years later.

Never have we been able to connect with so many other poets, ideas, and meaningful, sustainable opportunities for artists. Though the current political climate can feel unbearably isolating, in reality we are unprecedentedly connected.

Sessions will be mostly reserved for workshop. We will collectively determine the structure, time allotment system/s, and frequency we wish to use. Poets from outside the class will be read to energize discussions of craft and publishing. Participants will also be asked to give short informal presentations on influences and illuminations. Regular conferences with the instructor and poetry dates with colleagues will be scheduled. 

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Dec
17
10:00 AM10:00

SOLD OUT: PROMPTLY 2: ANOTHER FAST-PACED ONLINE POETRY BOOTCAMP

Are you ready stretch your muscles and get writing? In this six hour class, divided into 10 half-hour, fast-paced mini-sessions, we'll write poems based on a variety of open-ended writing prompts. We'll utilize classic and contemporary poems as models, share our drafts, and discuss each others' work. This workshop is open to all levels. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up at jenniferlknox at gmail.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 6 p.m.
10 spots
$80
10 am Iowa time-4 pm with a 30 minute lunch break at noon and two 15 minute breaks throughout.

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Nov
19
10:00 AM10:00

SOLD OUT: PROMPTLY: A FAST-PACED ONLINE POETRY BOOTCAMP

THIS CLASS IS SOLD OUT. JOIN US FOR ANOTHER "PROMPTLY" CLASS ON DECEMBER 17!

Are you ready stretch your muscles and get writing? In this six hour class, divided into 10 half-hour, fast-paced mini-sessions, we'll write poems based on a variety of open-ended writing prompts. We'll utilize classic and contemporary poems as models, share our drafts, and discuss each others' work. This workshop is open to all levels. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up at jenniferlknox at gmail.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 6 p.m.
10 spots
$80
10 am Iowa time-4 pm with a 30 minute lunch break at noon and two 15 minute breaks throughout.

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Sep
23
to Sep 24

StoCo's "Wild Women of the Woods": Powdering the Wow

For Story County Conservation's Fifth Annual "Wild Women of the Woods" conference at Hickory Grove Park. Due to popular demand, this event will be extended to offer an optional two nights of camping! Participants can choose from many different sessions including Archery, Paddle Boarding, Campfire Cooking, Animal Tracking, Meditation Coloring, Regatta Rowing, Creating Backyard Habitats, Knot Tying, Fishing, Music, and much, much more! 

THE CLASS: Using a simple dehydrator and a coffee grinder, we’ll create some inspired seasoning blends with dried veggies, herbs, mushrooms and some surprise ingredients. We’ll experiment hands on with balance, heat and sodium levels to develop your perfect personalized blend. More sign up info coming soon!

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Jul
9
2:00 PM14:00

Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
10 spots
$50 per session or $125 for all six.
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks.

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jul
2
2:00 PM14:00

Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
10 spots
$50 per session or $125 for all six.
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks.

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jun
25
2:00 PM14:00

Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
10 spots
$50 per session or $125 for all six.
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks.

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jun
18
2:00 PM14:00

Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
10 spots
$50 per session or $125 for all six.
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks.

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →
Jun
11
2:00 PM14:00

Six-Week Online Summer Sunday Workshop

Get those poems off your wall and down on paper with this six-week summer online workshop. You must have some workshop experience to join us. Email me at jenniferlknox at gmail for sign-up/details.

In this six-session online workshop in Google Hangouts, we'll read each other poems as well as poetry that inspires us to write and take risks. During the session, you'll be asked to write, read, talk, share your work. I'll email you instructions and reading materials when you sign up.

DEADLINE FOR SIGN UP: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
10 spots
$50 per session or $125 for all six.
2 pm Iowa time-4 pm with breaks.

340f380cc1607cee6460efa5b2ec82b7-1.jpg
View Event →