The Poem at the End of the World

As poets and writers, we are often tasked with conceptualizing the unimaginable. While pop-culture offers visions of post-apocalyptic landscapes, what is it actually like to imagine the end of the world as we know it, to fill-in the blank pages beyond the end? Can we, as wordsmiths, alter our collective collision course with oblivion, by cultivating better imaginations?

In this workshop, we’ll look at examples from Franny Choi, Saeed Jones, Joy Harjo, and more. We’ll explore how these writers have framed the end and what we can learn from them about writing the poem at the end of the world. Together, we’ll write our own apocalypse poems, so that we may return to the present—to live in this moment right now when it’s not over yet…

About the instructor: Aspen Everett is a poet and writer from the wind-tossed flatlands of Southeast Kansas. Despite their best efforts, there are still grass seeds and muddy rivers in most of their poems. Aspen is the author of Tributaries, from Middle Creek Publishing, and their poems have been published by Twenty Bellows, Planted Journal, South Broadway Press, Bombay Gin, and more. Aspen is a Community Engagement Instructor with Lighthouse Writers, Assistant Editor of Screaming at America, and 2026 Pushcart Prize Nominee. They live in Boulder, Colorado with their seventeen-year-old and stubborn houseplants. You can follow them on Instagram for poems and events @aspengrovepoetry.

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