Are YOU There? Approaching the Sacred with Donna Spruijt-Metz (via Zoom)

Poets have always called out to whatever they consider holy: God, the Goddess, a higher power, nature, the unfathomable. We reach out with ‘why’ questions, such as ‘Why is this happening?’ or ‘how’ questions, such as ‘How can I keep a good heart in this world?’ We reach out with pleas and supplications, with our innermost secrets and vexations. John Donne, Lucille Clifton, Jericho Brown, Gerald Stern, Li-Young Lee, Alicia Ostriker, Francisco X. Alarcón, Vandana Khanna, among others, call out to the ineffable in their work. These poems can be powerful expressions of joy, sorrow, anger, anguish, confusion, wonder—even curiosity and playfulness—and they offer conversations that are interesting, deep, and deeply personal. What are the available tools and craft techniques that can help us enter such conversations? In this generative workshop, we will reach towards writing in dialogue with whatever you consider holy. The focus will be on poetry, but the skills we exercise in this generative workshop can also enable fiction and nonfiction.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom ( Sunday, October 27, 12:30-2:30 PM ET) and will be capped at 15 students. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email misty@writerscenter.org with any questions.

All HVWC scholarship applications will be available on May 1 and will be due on May 15 for all summer/fall 2024 classes.

Donna Spruijt-Metz’s debut poetry collection is ‘General Release from the Beginning of the World’ (2023, Free Verse Editions, Palette Press). She is an emeritus psychology professor, MacDowell fellow, rabbinical school drop-out, and former classical flutist. She was featured as one of ‘5 over 50 debut authors’ in Poets & Writers Magazine (11/23). Her chapbooks include ‘Slippery Surfaces’, ‘And Haunt the World’ (with Flower Conroy). and ‘Dear Ghost’ (winner, 2023 Harbor Review Editor’s prize). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, Tahoma Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is currently a reader for Psaltery & Lyre magazine and co-stewards the national Poetry Grind.