Poems of Collective Memory with Esther Lin (via Zoom)

How do we make poems of a collective memory? Poetry creates formal order out of emotional disorderliness. In this intensive workshop, we will read poems on the complexities of family life, paying close attention to the decisions poets make of childhood, loss, inheritance, and unexpected renewal. We will then use our study of poems as kindling to draft our own poems, and then share what we’ve written with an eye toward the role of second drafts and how they are distinct from revisions, refreshing our language, and surprising ourselves.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom 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 ask@writerscenter.org with any questions.

The scholarship application for the Altman Person of Color Scholarships, Limp Wrist LGBTQIA+ Scholarships, and the Need-Based Scholarships will be available on May 1 and will be due on May 15 for all summer and fall classes.

Esther Lin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant for 21 years. She is the author of The Ghost Wife, winner of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. In 2020 she was a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, and from 2017 to 2019, a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She has received honors from the T. S. Eliot House, Cité internationale, Paris; the Crab Orchard Review; and Poets House. Currently she co-organizes the Undocupoets, which raises consciousness about the structural barriers undocumented poets.