Ellen Bass presents Living Room Craft Talks: The Fourth Series

Ellen Bass presents Living Room Craft Talks: The Fourth Series, a series of craft talks, on Fridays beginning October 29 and continuing through December 10, 2021 from 9 to 11 a.m. Pacific.

From the organizer:

Running Live Fridays, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, 12, 19, Dec. 3 & 10
9 – 11 am PT | 12 – 2 pm ET
and Recorded for Viewing Online Through January 31, 2022

You do not need to have taken the previous Living Room Craft Talks to take this series.

If you want to learn more about the strategies that you can employ to write poems that are vivid, arresting, meaningful and complex, I’d be delighted to have you join me in the Living Room Craft Talks: The Fourth Series. If you haven’t attended the previous talks, that’s fine. Each series is independent.

I’ll be presenting practical teachings that you’ll be able to put to use at whatever stage of development you’re at—whether you’re just beginning, somewhere in the great middle, or are an accomplished and published poet. These talks are focused on poetry, but prose writers are welcome. This precise attention to structure and language will enrich your work as well.

The topics for this series are: Sentiment & Sentimentality, Image, Line, Form, Eco-Poetry, and The Ode.

We’ll be reading exemplary poems from a large and diverse group of poets. And there will be guest appearances from: Mark Doty, Paul Tran, Jason Schneiderman, Victoria Chang, Marie Howe, and Ross Gay!

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The Living Room Craft Talks: The Fourth Series is made possible by the use of two systems: Zoom and a participant-only portal on this website. The live craft talks are held on Zoom. The recordings of the craft talks and the handouts of poems and resources are made available through the portal on this website.

Cost: $300 (US dollars) for the series, including access to the talks’ recordings through January 31, 2022

Full and partial scholarships available for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) writers and individuals with financial need.

We want this workshop to be accessible to as many people as we can manage. We know these are difficult times. If the price is a hardship, please email Jen at jen@ellenbass.com and tell us in 2-3 sentences what your circumstances are and what, if anything, you could pay. Once you apply, please wait for a reply before signing up.

Alternatively, if you’d like to sponsor a person in need, please contact Jen.

Dates: Fridays, October 29, November 5, 12, 19, December 3, and 10

Please note: we will be taking a break on November 26th.

Access to the participant-only portal for the series on this website is through January 31, 2022. So, if you miss any of the live sessions on Zoom, you have time to watch them on this website.

Times:  9 – 11 am Pacific |12 – 2 pm Eastern

Each talk will be approximately 2 hours long (some sessions may run long). The talk will include a wealth of information about the topic, close readings, and discussion of poems that illustrate these aspects of the craft, as well as practical guidance and exercises to bring these elements into your own poems. The talk will be followed by a half hour for questions. Ellen may not be able to answer all your questions in that time, but she’ll read them all and, when possible, she’ll try to work in responses in the following talks.

Register here: https://www.ellenbass.com/events/living-room-craft-talks-the-fourth-series/