“Into the Unknown”: Monday Night Poetry with Nathan McClain (via Zoom)

For me, among the most memorable pieces of advice from Toni Morrison’s documentary, THE PIECES I AM, was, “People say to write about what you know. I’m here to tell you, no one wants to read that, ’cause you don’t know anything. So, write about something you don’t know.” In this 4-week generative writing workshop, we will do just that. Each week, we will deploy strategies and techniques that move us away from our writing patterns and comforts and closer to greater surprise and discovery. Participants may read work from Nam Le, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Diane Seuss, and Charles Wright among others.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom (6 Mondays, 6-8 PM ET, November 4 – December 9) 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.

Nathan McClain (he/him) is the author of two collections of poetry: Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and Scale (Four Way Books, 2017). He is a recipient of fellowships from The Frost Place, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and is a Cave Canem fellow. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. His poems and prose have appeared in Plume Poetry 10, The Common, Guesthouse, Poetry Northwest, and Zócalo Public Square, among others. He teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.