“What grows in that place is possessed of a beauty all its own, ramshackle and unexpected.”
– Campbell McGrath, “The Prose Poem”

Poetry’s history is one of change, of expansion in and out of new forms, purposes, contexts. It wasn’t too long ago that it broke the binds of meter to create vers libre and to mate with prose, and recent years have brought both greater acceptance of hybrid forms like the prose poem and verse novel, as well as the proliferation of new genres like digital and video poetry and text art.

In this weeklong generative workshop, we’ll challenge ourselves to push against genre boundaries. We’ll explore hybrid forms such as the prose poem and verse essay, experiment with how poetry can include visual elements such as images, collage, and typographic shapes, and gain inspiration from burgeoning genres like videopoetry and “poetry comics.” However, while we’ll look at and discuss examples along the way, the goal will be not only to practice writing in existing hybrid forms, but also to surprise ourselves by what glorious new beasts might emerge from the forge.