Below you'll find the complete guide to everything poetry at Lit Fest 2021, including craft seminars and readings from headliners Carolyn Forché, Layli Long Soldier, and Gregory Pardlo. Choose intensives, seminars, and events á la carte or sign up for one of our festival passes for the full experience.
One-Weekend Intensives
- One-Weekend Intensive: The Dharma of Poetry with John Brehm (June 5-6)
- One-Weekend Intensive: Listening to Images with Diana Khoi Nguyen (June 5-6)
- One-Weekend Intensive: Queer Forms with Serena Chopra (June 12-13)
- One-Weekend Intensive: Poetry in a Time of Extremes with Elizabeth Robinson (June 12-13
Craft Seminars
To view all of the Lit Fest craft seminars, visit this page.
Friday, June 4
- Embodied Poetry with Toby Altman
- Nature Writing in the Anthropocene with Evelyn Hampton
- Composition as Assemblage with Diana Khoi Nguyen
- Surviving the Rejection Blues with Vicki Lindner
- Beginnings and Endings in Poetry with Andrea Rexilius
Saturday, June 5
- Creating Art in Dark Times with R. Alan Brooks
- Maintaining a Consistent Writing Practice with Steven Dunn and Suzi Q. Smith
Sunday, June 6
- The Art of the Line Break with Alyse Knorr
- Writer as Cartographer with Poupeh Missaghi
- The Element of Surprise with Elisa Gabbert
- Speculative Poetry with André Hoilette
Monday, June 7
- Generating Inspiration with Alyse Knorr
- Writing What You Don't Know with Linda Hogan
- The Mind Outside the Head with Sheila Heti
- Writing for Healing and Change with Joy Roulier Sawyer
- Do Your Research—Documentary Poetics with Abigail Chabitnoy
Tuesday, June 8
- Synesthesia with Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
- Writing the Real and Surreal with José Olivarez
Wednesday, June 9
- Writing with the Moon Cycles with Courtney E. Morgan
- Personal Archives with Leslie Jamison
- Ekphrastic Everything with Gregory Pardlo
- From the Beginning: Notes on Writing Prose Memoir and Book-length Works of Poetry with Carolyn Forché
- Using the Blank Space: Writing Nontraditional and Experimental Formats with Liz Breazeale
- Multilingual Writing with Poupeh Missaghi
- Mapping Territory: Organizing Your Poetry Manuscript with Radha Marcum
Thursday, June 10
- Difficult Personas with Teow Lim Goh
- Getting Published: Stories, Essays, Articles, and Books with Jenny Shank
- Writing the Poems of Our Land with Juan Morales
Friday, June 11
- Literature of Witness with Poupeh Missaghi
- What Oulipo Knows: How Constraint-Based Writing Can Push Your Work into Uncharted Territory with Jesse Morse
- Exercises in Ventriloquism with Elizabeth Robinson
- Live in the Layers: Mindfulness and Writing with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
- The Way of the Artist Is a Surrender: Writing Hybrid, Crossing Genres with Addie Tsai
- Prompt Party with Joy Roulier Sawyer
- Poem as Collage with Andrea Rexilius
Saturday, June 12
- Six Poems by Emily Dickinson with Lynn Wagner
- Drawing for Writers with Brian Kearney
- Echo Chamber: Poetics of Space with Abigail Chabitnoy
- Digging Up Your Ghosts: Vulnerable Writing and the Tools to Write Beyond the Grave with Hillary Leftwich
- Poetry and White Supremacy: Fighting Racism in Your Lyric Poems with Kimberly O'Connor
Sunday, June 13
- Turn it up, Turn it down: The Poem as Amplification with Peter Markus
- Writing from the Family Archive with Carolina Ebeid
- Poets in Translation: Adam Zagajewski and Reina María Rodríguez with Lynn Wagner
Evening Events
- Lit Fest Kickoff Party with emcee Adam Cayton-Holland, live music, and more on June 4
- Inspiration Tour with Alex McElroy, Tarfia Faizulla, Alexander Lumans, and Diana Khoi Nguyen on June 6
- The Lit Fest Virtual Spelling Bee, hosted by The Spelling Bee Company on June 12
Visiting Author Readings
- Monday, June 6: Visiting Authors Reading and Conversation: Hanif Abdurraqib and Layli Long Soldier
- Tuesday, June 8: Visiting Authors Reading and Conversation: Carolyn Forché and Gregory Pardlo
