Sorrow Is Not My Name: Writing Poems to Find Joy and Renewal through Grief with Meghan Sterling (via Zoom)

This 6-week class meets on Zoom, Wednesdays, 4-6 PM ET, beginning June 12, ending July 17.

In his poem, Sorrow is Not My Name, Ross Gay writes, “No matter the pull toward brink. No/ matter the florid, deep sleep awaits./There is a time for everything.” As we live through difficult and uncertain times, there is great power in finding and celebrating all that is worthy and beautiful. In this generative poetry workshop, we will read and write poems about grief, both personal and global, while finding the treasures within and the joys we can recall, to renew us in order to live fully and deeply. As Gay writes at the end of his poem, “I remember. My color’s green. I’m spring.” This workshop will explore memory and current events to create poems that juxtapose the dichotomies of our lived reality. Readings will include Ross Gay, Diane Seuss, Sharon Olds, Danez Smith, Chen Chen, and many others. Through writing prompts, readings, exploring current events and kind, encouraging feedback, we will be working together to generate poetry that explores what it is to be alive at this time in history, and learning techniques for mining our lives’ riches to keep going.

NB: This 6-week class will be taught on Zoom, Wednesdays, 4-6 PM ET, beginning June 12, 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.

Multi-Pushcart Nominee, Meghan Sterling (she, her, hers) has been published or has work forthcoming in Meridian, Hunger Mountain, The Los Angeles Review, Rhino Poetry, Rattle, Colorado Review and many other journals. She has been a Hewnoaks Fellow and a Dibner Fellow. Her first full length collection These Few Seeds (Terrapin Books) came out in 2021 and was an Honorable Mention for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize in Poetry. Her chapbook, Self Portrait with Ghosts of the Diaspora (Harbor Editions), her second full length collection, View from a Borrowed Field, which won the Paul Nemser Poetry Prize (Lily Poetry Review) and her third full-length collection, Comfort the Mourners (Everybody Press) all came out in 2023. She lives in Maine with her family, works as a professional writer and teaches poetry workshops. Read her work at meghansterling.com.