Writing the Saturation Poem: a Generative Workshop with Jennifer Jean (via Zoom)

Writers know, restraints on language create powerful poems. They focus the attention of a writer’s monkey-mind—which actively avoids a deep exploration of the heart of the poem they’re trying to write. Poetic restraints are often formal: fourteen lines for a sonnet, a syllabic count in a haiku, tanka, sijo; a refrain in a bop or villanelle; a shape on the page for a concrete poem; etcetera. Sometimes restraints are arbitrary: open a collection and write a poem using the first line of that poem, etcetera. Can an immersive experience be a restraint? Yes! Can it result in powerful poems? Yes! We see this in some types of ekphrastics—including: saturations, which are a type of ekphrastic poem written after or about an obsessive and immersive audio experience. In this workshop, instructor Jennifer Jean will discuss writing saturations for her recent collection VOZ. As well, students will explore potent saturations by Yusef Komunyakaa, David Baker, Anne Sexton, Adrian Matejka, and others. Students will leave with a grasp of the form, a reading list, and several drafts of their own amazing, music filled work.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom (Saturday, August 17, 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. 

Jennifer Jean’s poetry collections include VOZ, Object Lesson, and The Fool. Her resource book is Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry. She’s co-written and co-translated Where Do You Live? أين تعيش؟ (Arrowsmith Press, 2024) with Iraqi poet Dr. Hanaa Ahmed. As well, she’s edited the forthcoming anthology Other Paths for Shahrazad: a Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Arab Women (Tupelo Press, 2025). Her work appears in POETRY, Rattle, The Common, the Los Angeles Review, and On the Seawall. She’s received honors, residencies, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Academy of American Poets, the Mass Cultural Council, DISQUIET, and the Women’s Federation for World Peace. Jennifer is the senior program manager of 24PearlStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center’s online writing program.