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 and expert 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 opportunities to create and share new work.

The Enthusiasm of Influence

October 8th, 2025, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “The Enthusiasm of Influence,” a workshop led by Sandra Marchetti on Wednesday, October 8th 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).

We’ve all heard of the “anxiety” of influence. Have you ever struggled to pin down who or what is influencing your writing? Do you want to learn how to write with your influences instead of against them? Do you worry that acknowledging your influences makes your work less likely to be taken seriously? Do you want to find out more about what makes you, you on the page? If so, this workshop will help you to sleuth your voice. You will learn how your influences are working in your writing, how to make an influence-driven exercise into a polished piece, and how and when to “steal” from writers you love. Literary “influencers” like Jessica Rae Bergamino, Ansel Elkins, and Colm Tóibín will be discussed. Bring two influential texts (art, poems, music!) to share, a pre-existing draft of your own that you want to revise, and some blank notebook paper!

While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Sandra Marchetti via Venmo:@Sandra-Marchetti-1.

Sandra Marchetti is the 2023 winner of The Twin Bill Book Prize for Best Baseball Poetry Book of the Year. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, DIORAMA, from Stephen F. Austin State University Press (2025), Aisle 228 (SFA Press, 2023), and Confluence (Sundress Publications, 2015). Sandy is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays. Her poetry and essays appear widely in Mid-American Review, Blackbird, Ecotone, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and elsewhere. She is Poetry Editor Emerita at River Styx Magazine. Sandy earned an MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry from George Mason University and now serves as the Assistant Director of Academic Support at Harper College in Chicagoland.

This event is brought to you by a grant provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission.

The Intersection of Religion and Mental Health in Poetry

November 12th, 2025, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “The Intersection of Religion and Mental Health in Poetry,” a workshop led by Maya Williams on Wednesday, November 12th 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).

Regardless of the religious, nonreligious, irreligious, or spiritual worldview we identify with, the culture of religion continues to be an influence on people’s mental health. We will look at poetry by Adrienne Novy, Eugenia Leigh, and Maya Williams to learn how suicidality, spiritual bypassing, and religious related trauma in poetics can impact us. We will also make time to write in response to prompts inspired by the poems.

While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Maya Williams via Venmo: @MayaWilliams16

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as Portland, ME’s seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Eir debut poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Their third poetry collection, What’s So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway?, was selected as one of four winners of Garden Party Collective’s chapbook prize in 2024.

This event is brought to you by a grant provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission.

Word/Play: A Generative Poetry Workshop

December 10th, 2025, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “Word/Play: A Generative Poetry Workshop,” a workshop led by Aerik Francis on Wednesday, December 10th 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).

Wordplay is time traveling: it is an opportunity to explore the history of words and languages while also crafting new futures and directions for words and language. Wordplay can bring fun and pleasure back into the craft of writing. Words can also enact dramatic plays, exploring the nuances of language using sound and employing multiple meanings at once.

This generative writing poetry workshop is an invitation to play with words and engage critically with craft. We will begin with an opportunity to sandbox and play with language based on impulse and intuition. Then, after our warm up writing activity where we will gather a bank of words and sounds, we will spend the workshop discussing tools and poetry related to wordplay with a special focus on homonyms, homophones, and puns. We’ll draw inspiration from work by authors like Christina Sharpe, Evelyn Berry, Franny Choi, Emily Pérez, and Haryette Mullen before experimenting on our own. By the end of the workshop, we’ll all hopefully have seedlings of poetic writing for future work and more craft tools to bring back into our own craft practices.

While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Aerik Francis via Venmo at @Aerik-Francis or Paypal at aerfrancis@gmail.com.

Aerik Francis is a Queer Black Latinx poet born & based on the lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples currently known as Denver, Colorado, USA. Aerik wants us to come together and gum up the gears of the machinery of the empire toward all of our collective liberation. Their poetry chapbook MISEDUCATION (New Delta Review 2023) can be purchased online or in person, and their newest poetry chapbook BODYPOLITIC is forthcoming with Abode Press in 2026. Find more of their work on their website phaentompoet.com or via social media @phaentompoet.

This event is brought to you by a grant provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission.