The Sundress Academy for the Arts hosts the Sundress Workshop Series, a series of generative writing workshops emphasizing composition, revision, and creative development. As part of Sundress Publications, the Sundress Workshop Series 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 monthly workshops are free to attend.
Workshops
Chronic Poets Society
August 14th, 2024, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “Chronic Poets Society,” a workshop led by Christa Fairbrother on Wednesday, August 14th, 2024, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).
How can you find the energy to write about chronic illness while living in a chronic body? How does anyone else manage this, either?
We’ll look at the poets Camisha Jones, Gwyneth Lewis, and Valerie Witte, whose form and content are vastly different from each other. However, they’re each creating works centered on the body despite their own health challenges.
Then, we’ll do a multi-part mindfulness activity to both center yourself and expand your thoughts to add depth to your work. You can reuse the exercise anytime you need to feel better in the moment and as a generative activity to create new work. We’ll share works that spring from this exercise and talk about how to stay connected to your craft even on the worst days.
While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Christa Fairbrother via Venmo: @cfairbro (Phone #: (727) 418-7623) or CashApp: $christa@christafairbrotherwrites.com
Christa Fairbrother, MA, is currently the poet laureate of Gulfport, Florida. Her chronic illness-focused poetry has appeared in Knee Brace Press, Medical Literary Messenger, Pleiades, and Réapparition Journal, as well as being nominated for a Pushcart prize. She’s had residencies with the Sundress Academy for the Arts, the Bethany Arts Community, and her chapbook, Chronically Walking, was a finalist for the Kari Ann Flickinger Memorial Prize. During the day she helps people deepen their sense of embodiment through aqua yoga, and her book Water Yoga (Singing Dragon, 2022) won medals from the Nautilus Book Awards and the Florida Writers Association.
Radical Revisions: One Poem, Infinite Possibilities
September 11th, 2024, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “Radical Revisions: One Poem, Infinite Possibilities,” a workshop led by SG Huerta on Wednesday, September 11th, 2024, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).
Is a poem ever truly finished? In this generative workshop, participants will start with a single poem and leave with endless revision possibilities. Though that may sound overwhelming, experimenting with radical revisions can uncover what the poem truly wants to say.
Drawing from contemporary poets such as torrin a. greathouse, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, and Safia Elhillo, we will discuss and dissect the different ways a poem can be presented on the page. Participants will practice and play with erasure, line breaks, footnotes, prose poetry, formal constraints, hybrid elements, and more.
Beginning writers will learn the possibilities of poetry, while experienced writers will have a chance to see their work in a new light. Participants of all levels will leave the workshop empowered to play on the page, take the skills practiced in this workshop to other writing projects, or even begin a sequence of poems based on these revisions.
While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to SG Huerta via Venmo: @sg-huerta-3 or CashApp: $sgh122716
SG Huerta is a queer Xicanx writer from Dallas. They are the Poetry Editor of Abode Press, Nonfiction Co-Editor for ANMLY, and Marketing Co-Director for Split Lip Magazine. SG is the author of two poetry chapbooks and the forthcoming nonfiction chapbook GOOD GRIEF (fifth wheel press 2025). Their work has appeared in Barrelhouse, Honey Literary, The Offing, Infrarrealista Review, and elsewhere. They write about trans/literary things in their newsletter, trans poetica. Find them at sghuertawriting.com or in central Texas with their partner and cats.
Writing More Than One Place: A Generative Workshop
October 9th, 2024, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “Writing More Than One Place,” a workshop led by Asa Drake on Wednesday, October 9th, 2024, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).
Exploring the ecology and history of diaspora, this class turns to the work of Catherine Chen, Leslie Sainz, and Xiao Yue Shan to examine our personal connections to place in the context of colonialism. What happens when we celebrate the “exotic” cultivar, but not the body who imagined it? How do we interpret displaced species in the context of climate change? Through generative exercises, we’ll study language formed in the ecotone between home and homeland, offices and public spaces.
While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Asa Drake via Venmo: @Asa-Drake or CashApp: $AsaDrake/ asaldrake@gmail.com
Asa Drake is a Filipina American poet and author of the chapbook One Way to Listen (Gold Line Press, 2023). She has received fellowships and awards from the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, the Florida Book Awards, Tin House and Idyllwild Arts. Her poems have been published by The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review Daily and The Georgia Review.
Space Adventure: Playing with the Page
November 13th, 2024, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “Space Adventure: Playing with the Page,” a workshop led by Livia Meneghin on Wednesday, November 13th, 2024, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).
Short lines or long ones? Tercets or couplets? Sonnet or prose poem? Erasure or free verse? As poets, we ask ourselves questions about form and structure constantly. Words alone are just one aspect of poetry. Where they are placed on the page does just as much work to guide your reader, create meaning, and charge our poems.
In this generative workshop, we will challenge the term “blank page” through play and prompts. We will explore the possibilities of the page, whether paper, digital, etc. We will discuss examples and draw wisdom from writers such as Tyehimba Jess, Alicia Mountain, M. NourbeSePhilip, and more.
While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Livia Meneghin via Venmo: @Livia-M-1
Livia Meneghin (she/her) is the author of the chapbook Honey in My Hair and is the Sundress Publications Reads Editor. She earned a Writers’ Room of Boston Poetry Fellowship, Breakwater Review’s 2022 Peseroff Prize, and Second Place in The Room Magazine’s 2023 Poetry Contest. Her writing has found homes in Gasher, Thrush, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA from Emerson College, where she now teaches writing and literature. She is a cancer survivor.
From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing
December 11th, 2024, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress
The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing,” a workshop led by Najya Williams on Wednesday, December 11th, 2024, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).
From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing is a 90-minute writing workshop that aims to provide participants with additional tools to communicate, process, and explore their emotions as related to their experience with trauma, grief and/or sexual assault. Moreover, it’s an opportunity to reclaim personal narrative and construct the audience who will bear witness to their art. We will center bell hooks’ “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness” and use its key principles regarding language and writing from marginalized existence to guide our writing.
While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Najya Williams via Venmo: @Najya-Williams or CashApp: $NajyaWilliams
Najya Williams (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist who floats along the U.S. East Coast. She graduated from Harvard College, and is a 2025 M.D. and Narrative Medicine Program Graduate from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine (Temple University).
Najya is devoted to the liberation and healing of all oppressed peoples, and this passion is reflected in many of her projects, service efforts and literary works. Her poetry, essays, and other writings have been accepted and/or published by a number of organizations, including POETRY Magazine, Black Youth Project and Healing Points. Her forthcoming collection is set to be published by Button Poetry in Spring 2025.