The Sundress Academy for the Arts hosts the several focused retreats a year that provide focused, personalized instruction to writers of all skill levels. Participants are treated to guidance from advanced instructors who help them to not only hone their craft but also find suitable venues for their work. These two-day events are run online or in-person, depending on the event.
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is thrilled to announce its 2025 poetry retreat, which runs from June 7-8, 2025. All SAFTA retreats focus on generative writing, and this year’s retreat will also include the following craft talk sessions: “Life Distilled: Poetic Mapping of Personal Transformation” and “Intertextualities, Multimodalities, and Expanded Field Poetics.” There will also be sessions on publishing your own work in literary journals, creating generative writing exercises, and more! Included will also be a faculty reading, an open mic, and space for conversations among participants.
The event will be open to poets of all backgrounds and experience levels and provide an opportunity to work with many talented authors and poets from around the country, including workshop leaders Kenzie Allen and Tatiana Johnson-Boria.
The total cost of attendance is $75. Space at this workshop is limited, so reserve your place today.
Life Distilled: Poetic Mapping of Personal Transformation
Gwendolyn Brooks defines poetry as “life distilled” and within this lens, how can we use the poetic to unravel the micro and macro transformations occurring within our lives? How can we write the unique changes in our lives in ways that also resonate beyond ourselves? This talk will examine poems by Nikki Giovanni and Mary Oliver while discussing the varied ways that poetry can chronicle pivotal points of change in our lives. Learn how to employ form, structure, narrative, specificity, and character to map personal transformation through poetic expression.
Intertextualities, Multimodalities, and Expanded Field Poetics
Kenzie Allen is the author of Cloud Missives (Tin House, 2024). She is a Haudenosaunee poet and multimodal artist, and the recipient of a 92NY Discovery Prize, an inaugural James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets, the 49th Parallel Award in poetry, broadside prizes from Sundress Publications and Littoral Press, and fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Aspen Writers’ Foundation, and In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets). A finalist for the National Poetry Series, her work has appeared in Poetry, Boston Review, Narrative, Best New Poets, and other venues. Her research centers on documentary and visual poetics, literary cartography, and the enactment of Indigenous sovereignties through creative works. She is a first-generation descendant of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.
Tatiana Johnson-Boria (she/her) is the author of Nocturne in Joy (Sundress Publications 2023), winner of the 2024 Julia Ward Howe Book Prize in poetry. She’s an educator, artist, and facilitator who uses her writing practice to dismantle racism, reckon with trauma, and to cultivate healing. She’s an award-winning writer who has received fellowships from Tin House, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, The MacDowell Residency, and others. Tatiana completed her MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College and teaches at Emerson College, GrubStreet, and others. Find her work in or forthcoming at The Academy of American Poets, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, among others. She’s represented by Lauren Scovel at Laura Gross Literary.
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is thrilled to announce its Trans/Nonbinary Retreat, which runs from Saturday, July 12th, 2025 through Sunday July 13th, 2025. This event will be entirely virtual held via Zoom. All SAFTA retreats focus on generative writing, and this year’s retreat will also include the following craft talk sessions: “Learning to Say ‘I’” and “Poetics of Resistance.”
The event will be open to trans and nonbinary writers of all backgrounds and experience levels and provide an opportunity to work with many talented authors and poets from around the country, including workshop leaders Joy Ladin and SG Huerta, and keynote speaker Dani Putney, whose address is titled “A Stake through the Heart: On Duende, Vulnerability, and the Self in Creative Writing.”
The total cost of attendance is $75. To apply for a fellowship, please send a packet of 5-12 pages of writing (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid) along with a brief statement on why you would like to attend this retreat no later than May 5th, 2025. Fellowships applications are available here.
Space at this workshop is limited, so reserve your place today.
Learning to Say “I”: The Art of First-Person Trans Poetics
As it becomes ever more difficult and dangerous to live trans and nonbinary identities in this country, writers find ourselves on the front line of efforts to keep trans and nonbinary identities and lives visible and recognizable as ways of being human. Because most language and literary conventions are based on binary gender assumptions, these efforts often require us to engage in what some of us call “trans poetics,” techniques that enable us to use traditional language and literary conventions to represent selves, experiences, perspectives, and feelings that they are not designed to represent.
This craft talk will focus on first-person trans poetics — exploring the techniques we use to say “I” in ways that signify trans and nonbinary selves both on the page, and in our lives. We will discuss trans poetic examples by gender nonconforming writers such as Cam Awkward-Rich, Trace Peterson, Spencer Williams, and Oliver Bendorf, as well as by non-trans-identified poets such as Dickinson and Whitman, queer pioneers who deployed trans poetics to say “I” in new ways. To draw on the knowledge we gain by saying “I” in daily life, we will also do short exercises designed to help us recognize trans poetic tactics we use to signify ourselves when we are living in the closet, when we are in transition, and when we are openly living as ourselves, and to translate these practical experiences into literary techniques. Finally, we will consider how first-person trans poetic techniques can lead us beyond the self, enabling us to give voice to ways of being that defy not only binary gender but other categories that have traditionally defined conceptions and representations of self, subjectivity, and humanity.
Poetics of Resistance
“The role of the artist is to make revolution irresistible” -Toni Cade Bambara
As marginalized creatives, writing can often feel daunting in the face of state repression and violence. This craft talk will explore how writers past and present express the struggle for liberation, energize oppressed peoples, and make revolution irresistible. We will dive into the work of writers such as June Jordan, George Abraham, and Wendy Trevino. How do we make art that not only proclaims WE ARE HERE, but also WE RESIST? How do we speak to our current moment while looking towards a liberated future we can create together?
This retreat is made possible by a generous grant from the Appalachian Community Fund.
Joy Ladin has long worked at the tangled intersection of literature and trans identity. Dubbed “the godmother of trans poetics” by T.C. Tolbert, she has written eleven poetry collections, including recently published Family; two Lambda Literary finalists, Transmigration and Impersonation (reissued in a revised edition by Doubleback Books); and National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna. She has also written three trans-centered books of creative non-fiction: a memoir of gender transition, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; a groundbreaking work of trans theology, Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist, The Soul of the Stranger; and last year’s Once Out of Nature: Selected Essays on the Transformation of Gender. Her writing has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship, among other honors. A nationally recognized speaker on trans identity, Ladin has been featured on a number of NPR programs, including an “On Being” with Krista Tippett interview that has been rebroadcast several times. Her writing is available at joyladin.wordpress.com.
SG Huerta is a queer Xicanx writer and organizer. A Roots Wounds Words Fellow and Tin House alum, they are the Poetry Editor of Abode Press. SG is the author of two poetry chapbooks and the nonfiction chapbook Good Grief (fifth wheel press 2025). Their debut full-length poetry collection, Burns, will be released by Sundress in 2026. Their work has appeared in Honey Literary, The Offing, Infrarrealista Review, and elsewhere. Find them at sghuertawriting.com, or in Tejas with their partner and cats, working towards liberation for oppressed peoples everywhere. They believe Palestine will be free from the river to the sea. They encourage you to find tangible ways to support Palestinian liberation.
Dani Putney is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race Filipinx, and neurodivergent writer originally from Sacramento, California. They are the author of Mix-Mix (Baobab Press 2025) and Salamat sa Intersectionality (Okay Donkey Press 2021), finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry. They are also the author of the poetry chapbook Dela Torre (Sundress Publications 2022) and the creative nonfiction chapbook Swallow Whole (Bullshit Press 2024). They received their PhD in English from Oklahoma State University and MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women. They live in Reno, Nevada.
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is hosting its fifth generative writing retreat celebrating survival and healing on October 4-5, 2025. This two-day retreat for sexual assault survivors will be held at The Birdhouse in Knoxville, TN and will be a safe space for creativity, generative writing exercises, discussions on ways to write trauma, advice on publishing, and more. Come join us in mutual support for a weekend of writing time for healing, safety, and comfort.
The event will be open to writers of all backgrounds and experiences and provide an opportunity to work with many talented poets and writers from around the country including Jezmina Von Thiele, LySaundra Campbell, Bell McEntire, Dena Igusti, and Michelle Guerrero Henry.
The weekend event runs from 10AM on Saturday through 4PM on Sunday and includes group instruction, a reading by workshop leaders, an open mic, writing supplies, and meals. Writers will need to provide their own overnight accommodations and ground transportation.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Poetry Foundation, all fees for selected applicants will be waived. We will require a small, refundable deposit to hold your space.
Accessing and Exploring the Inner Child with Bell McEntire
This workshop will center around accessing and communicating with one’s ‘inner child.’ In relation to healing from sexual trauma, I have found it incredibly useful, in my own personal healing work and that of other survivors, to work to access the playful, curious, and intuitive part of oneself that the ‘inner child’ encapsulates.
We will begin with a few activities to unearth the unserious, creative, and childlike self through a hands-on tactile experience, given that stimulation of the five senses can be helpful in getting out of the cerebral and into the physical. In addition to the exploration of our sensory experience, writing exercises will include initiating dialogue between the child and adult self in letters to one another, getting to know one’s childhood self by exploring child-self preferences, brief attempts at fanfiction, and combining curiosity with open-mindedness in order to learn from the child-self.
We will be taking a look at excerpts of familiar children’s and young adult novels, and will also read adult nonfiction literature about inner child work and self-care from authors such as Kristin Neff, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Audre Lorde.
Although this workshop will be geared toward the creative nonfiction genre, all genres can be used in any writing exercises.
Declarations of Existence with Dena Igusti
Declarations in this country, in the form of policy, manifesto, etc. have largely been branded and claimed by people who hurt other people, an explanation or “justification” for harm. Oftentimes, as marginalized people, we are forced to exclaim what we are not in an attempt to move away from said harm. In this workshop, we will not only talk about who we are, but also how we exist within what is passed down to us, what we survive, and what brings us joy, whether that be history, community, identity, and more. Rather than minimize ourselves, our stories, and our hopes, we will instead focus on declarations of existence: I claim my right to thrive and control my own life and body, I want that for others, and this is how I think we could make that happen.
Writing the Hard Stuff: A Focus on the Fragment, Memory and Self-Care with Michelle Guerrero Henry
Storytelling is an act of survival. For many survivors, traditional narrative structures can be harmful by forcing a structured order out of pain while not fully capturing the complexities of memory, trauma, and healing.
Designed for writers of all levels, this workshop explores how fragmented storytelling—short sections, non-linear narratives, white space—can mirror the disjointed nature of memory and trauma, providing a more honest emotional truth and narrative. Drawing on the works of Kelly Sundberg, Lacy M. Johnson, Lidia Yuknavitch, Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint, and Carmen Maria Machado, among others, we will examine how contemporary writers use form to mirror the nature of traumatic memory, shaping their stories on their own terms.
Participants will engage in guided discussions, close readings that emphasize creative experimentation, and a generative writing exercise designed to distill memories. With an emphasis on self-care, we will discuss how to address emotional boundaries in the writing process, community support as sources of strength, and developing a sustainable writing practice.
We will explore questions like: How can fragmentation provide both distance and clarity? How can structure itself become a tool for healing? By the end of this workshop, participants will leave with new writing, a deeper understanding of how content and form interact as a means of self-expression, and strategies for continuing their work beyond the retreat. Above all, this session is designed to foster a safe, compassionate space where survivors can connect, create, and reclaim their narratives in ways that feel authentic and empowering.
Magic and Trauma Through the Lens of Culture and Lore with Jezmina Von Thiele
This workshop explores the relationship between magic and spiritual beliefs rooted in culture and family lore and the way they are overlaid with trauma, and the physical and emotional responses to trauma. Jezmina (they/she) will explore the role of divination, superstition, hauntings, possession, elemental spirits, deities and more and their importance to surviving and processing trauma through narrative, whether through poetry, prose, or oral tradition. This class takes the approach of “both and” for the natural and supernatural components of trauma, with particular attention to how cultural and familial relationships to the spiritual are a natural response to generational trauma. We will look at authors such as poet Luminita Mihai Cioaba, poet Hedina Sijercic, and writer Rajko Djuric, Romani authors who navigate and survive complex trauma ranging from genocide to sexism through Romani spiritual beliefs. This workshop will be primarily generative in nature and guide participants through unearthing their own personal cosmologies and using them as a focal point for their writing. We will also incorporate tarot techniques and intuition exercises rooted in Jezmina’s Romani heritage as a way to explore the magical and how it can help us create useful symbols, inspire new connections, and articulate the ineffable. The goal of the workshop is to validate the intuitive and unexplainable experiences that many survivors have, and empower them to tell the often omitted ‘magical’ elements of their stories.
Journaling for Pleasure, Journaling for Reclamation with LySaundra Campbell
Audre Lorde taught us that the erotic is more than sensuality—it’s a source of joy, power, and liberation. It’s a force that has been used to shame and silence us, but it’s also a tool for reclaiming our wholeness. Centering the wisdom of queer Black writers and activists like Audre Lorde, adrienne marie brown, and Prentis Hemphill, this workshop is designed to be a sacred space to release mental clutter, tap into your intuition, and reconnect with your creative flow.
During this somatic journaling workshop, we will pause, breathe, and reconnect with ourselves through affirmations and writing prompts, breathwork and dance, and curated music. As we journal the erotic, we will explore the power of using creative writing to create space for collective healing, reflection, and renewal.
LySaundra Campbell is a multidisciplinary storyteller, musician, and the founder of Social Soundtrack, a brand dedicated to community, storytelling, and healing across the African Diaspora through creative and performance art. Before launching Social Soundtrack, she worked for over a decade with organizations addressing domestic and sexual violence prevention at the collegiate, local, state, and national levels, including Prevention Institute, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
As an artist, she leverages themes of Black feminism, magical realism, and African spirituality to create stories that encourage radical imagination, communal healing, and joy. She is a 2025 EmergeNYC Residency Fellow with Brooklyn Arts Exchange, a 2025 lordship house residency fellow, a 2024 and 2021 Anaphora Arts Residency Fellow, and a 2021 Center for Cultural Power Artistic Fellow for We, As Ourselves national narrative campaign reframing perspectives of Black survivors of violence. Her words are found in the New York Writers Coalition anthology Common Unity, midnight & indigo, The New Territory Magazine, and more.
LySaundra graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in Sociology and a Multicultural Studies certificate and is currently studying towards an MA in Arts Politics at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She received training as an intimacy professional through the Somatica®Method and Theatrical Intimacy Education. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, New York Women in Film & Television, and Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity.
Michelle Guerrero Henry is a Cuban/Ecuadorian writer living in an old farmhouse just outside NYC. A Best of the Net nominee, her work has appeared in journals such as Longleaf Review, Pithead Chapel, and trampset, among others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at Randolph College and was a Nancy Craig Blackburn ’71 Fellow.
Dena Igusti is an Indonesian Muslim writer and FGC survivor born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of Cut Woman (Game Over Books, 2020), which has been listed as a 2022 Perennial Award Winner, 2020 Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick, and Entropy Mag’s Best Of 2020-2021. They are the Inaugural 2023 NYFA Ryan Hudak Playwright Award Winner. Their work has been featured in BOAAT Press, Peregrine Journal, The Margins, and other publications. Their work has been produced and performed at LA Times, The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, Women Deliver, the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit, Players Theatre, The Public, and more. They have been featured in Business Insider, Teen Vogue, American Theatre Magazine, and more. They are a More Art Engaging Artist fellow, NYSCA Grant recipient, Asian American Writers’ Workshop Open City fellow, Baldwin for the Arts resident, Best of the Net nominee, and more. They have been commissioned by The Miranda Family Fund. Their forthcoming collection Ecdysis: Cacophony of Skins releases with fourteen poems (London) in May 2025.
Bell McEntire is an emerging nonfiction writer. She is currently an MFA candidate and Graduate Instructor at the University of Kentucky. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Rappahannock Review, Carolina Muse, and Stuck In Notes.
Jezmina Von Thiele (they/she) is a writer, performer, and fortune teller. Co-author of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling and co-host of Romanistan podcast, they offer readings, coaching, and workshops online and in person.