A 1-Day Poetry Workshop
Wednesday: September 24, 6 - 9 PM
It is difficult to talk about grief, and it can even be more difficult to write through grief. In this workshop, we'll read Simonides' poetry for epitaphs in Ancient Greece, Anis Mojgani's poems that are in response to a person who is no longer living and in response to a person who is still living, and Kaveh Akbar’s poem about the repetition and images of grief. We'll explore how grief is related to our mental health, and how poems might be written and revised during hard times. Group guidelines will be shared on how to talk about the topics of war, suicide, death, divorce, and communal grief as safely and as bravely as possible.
$90 Members/$135 Nonmembers
Maya Williams (ey/em, they/them, and she/her) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently an Ashley Bryan Fellow and was selected as the seventh Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Maya has been a finalist in the New England Book Awards and Maine Literary Awards and won Garden Party Collective's chapbook contest. Ey also won the 2025 Headlight Review's chapbook contest. She graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts for Creative Writing with a Focus in Poetry at Randolph College in June 2022. They were a finalist of the Slam Free Or Die Qualifier Slam for their National Poetry Slam 2018 team and a runner up of the Slam Free or Die Individual Slam Championship in 2018, and she was a recipient of the Maine Humanities Council's Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024. Catch Maya hosting the hybrid open mic series Port Veritas on Tuesday nights and hosting the hybrid writing workshop series at Novel Maine on Sunday mornings.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-200-7180 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due two weeks prior to the workshop start date, at 9:00 a.m.
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MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
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