We’ve Only Just Begun: Publishing Poetry After 65 with Jo Ann Mort

This workshop is geared to those of us who began publishing later in life or who are contemplating publishing later in life.  Whether you are 50, 60, or 70, join this workshop for a dive into how to promote and publish your work. Since getting poetry published often emanates from ties we make in college and soon after, in graduate writing programs and hanging out at readings more likely populated by a younger cohort, writing while older — or rather, breaking into publishing our work while older—can be difficult. 

This workshop will focus on how to build and sustain a community later in life, how to identify and reach out to publishers, and how to create a narrative for yourself that will catapult you into the poetry publishing universe. We’ll discuss ideas about which journals we find interesting, share stories and ideas for pitching literary and poetry journals and magazines, discuss how to navigate the myriad of contests, and how to identify potential book publishers.

We will also take time for an exercise in pitch writing and share our personal pitches and critique them.

We’ll consider examples of writers who were published later in life, like Amy Clampitt, who transformed American poetry catapulting onto the literary scene when she was in her sixties. 

Workshop attendees will also be encouraged to share a poem with the group that draws on our life experience.

Jo-Ann Mort returned to poetry writing when she turned 60–nine years ago–after a nearly 22-year hiatus. Her first book of poetry, A Precise Chaos, will be published in May 2025, by Arrowsmith Press. Her poetry has appeared recently in Plume, UpStreet, Stand (UK), the Atlanta Review, The Women’s Review of Books, and elsewhere. A 1978 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she also did graduate work in poetry and philosophy at NYU. 

Jo-Ann’s previous lives inform her poetry, as do her global wanderings— as a trade union activist, a political organizer, and a lifelong advocate for, and writer about, peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Jo-Ann has written analysis and reported for more than 40 years from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including the West Bank and Gaza. Her journalism is widely published in the US and UK. Jo-Ann is a member of the national steering committee of Writers for Democratic Action. Born and raised in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, she is a longtime resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn.