Writing epistolary poems—poems that take the form of letters—addressing a specific person or entity (even if—sometimes especially if—there’s no hope of reply) can focus our attention and lead to surprising insights about ourselves and the world.

In this generative workshop, we’ll read some example poems, jumpstart our own poems with prompts and observations of the Mount Auburn landscape, and share with our fellow writers.

No experience necessary. Please bring your own writing supplies. (We will have some extra on hand.)

This workshop will take place in Bigelow Chapel’s Glass Wing. Weather permitting, we may venture outdoors to make observations that will inform our poems.

Event Capacity: 16 people

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Carolyn Oliver is a poet, editor, and teacher. She is the author of The Alcestis Machine (Acre Books, forthcoming 2024), Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble (University of Utah Press, 2022; selected for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry), and three chapbooks. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Poetry Daily, Copper Nickel, Image, Hunger Mountain, Beloit Poetry Journal, Southern Indiana Review, Consequence, and elsewhere. She is a 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at Mount Auburn Cemetery. (Online: carolynoliver.net)

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