Writing Poems of Joy & Resilience in Dark Times

The workshop will meet from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. on Monday, April 21, through Friday, April 25 in the loft at Bookstore1Sarasota. Registration is required. The workshop cost is $150 and includes all five sessions. Registration deadline is April 14.

About the workshop:

"In the dark times, will there be singing? Yes, there will be singing - of the dark times." - Bertolt Brecht

When poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote these words in exile during the rise of Nazi Germany, he recognized the power of art to persist, even in the face of despair. In our own era of upheaval - marked by relentless challenges and "biblical weather" that tests our resilience - poetry remains a vital force.

Join award-winning poet Rick Hilles for a transformative workshop exploring how joy and resilience can emerge through poetic expression. Guided by the belief that, as Toi Derricotte said, "Joy is a form of resistance," we will read, write, and share poems that bear witness to these truths. Together, we'll embrace the call to, as Samuel Beckett put it, "put our stains upon the silence."

Whether you are a seasoned poet or new to writing, this workshop is a space to explore creativity as a balm and a beacon in challenging times.

About the facilitator:

Rick Hilles, a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, Whiting Award, Camargo Fellowship, and the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship, is the author of Brother Salvage (winner of the 2005 Agnres Lynch Starrett Prize) and A Map of the Lost World (2012), both with the Pitt Poetry Series. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Harper's, Kenyon Review, Literary Imagination, Narrative Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, Salmagundi, and The Southern Review. He's currently a fellow at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM. He teaches in the English Department and MFA Program at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, TN.

Host or Publisher Bookstore1Sarasota