This workshop serves both as a brief survey of queer American poetry as well as an intensive exploration into students’ own writing. We’ll seek to unpack what it is that makes a queer poem queer & further what makes a poem a poem. We’ll try to locate what role desire & identity play in the creation & presentation of a piece of writing. Students will experiment with inherited & invented form & seek to locate their own voices within the vast & viscous history of literature. Starting with Emily D. & Walt W., we’ll move up to the present moment–looking at the work of contemporary luminaries such as Cam Awkward-Rich, Eduardo Corral, & several others to try & glean what tools & tactics we can along the way. Ultimately participants will leave this workshop with a better sense of their own voice & a braver, stranger way of approaching the page. Students of all orientations & identities are encouraged to sign up.