This workshop is a reprisal of 2023’s workshop and is designed for emerging poets who are using their instincts and love of poetry to create their own even though they may not have studied the art of poetry writing. This does not mean that experienced poets may not participate as long as they understand that the focus will be on the emerging poets.
Joan will lead participants through activities she used when teaching poetry writing, selecting writing exercises that produced the greatest variety of original material. Then, using the results of those exercises, participants will create drafts with an emphasis on what the poem wants to be, not what the poet wants the poem to be.
During the two weeks after the first session, participants can choose to send Joan one of those drafts for an individual writing lesson in which she will give suggestions for directions they could take in order to blend what the poem wants with what the poet wants! Then those who would like to do so may send the results of their revision back to Joan for feedback in the second session.
For recent workshops, there has been a random drawing before this second session, but for teaching emerging poets, Joan will choose the poems that offer lessons that will be most useful to other participants and let those poets know so they can be ready to read their poems and briefly explain the process they went through to turn the exercise material into a draft and then into a poem. Depending on how many people submit drafts for individualized instruction, she hopes to also have time in the second session for additional participants to respond and share what they have written and learned.
Joan Wiese Johannes believes Thornton Wilder was right when he had the Stage Manager in Our Town say that only poets and saints truly appreciate life while they are living it. Although not a candidate for sainthood, Joan identifies as a poet and enjoys combining her skills as a poet and a teacher to create informative and entertaining workshops. State Secondary Teacher of the Year, winner of the Chisholm Award from the WI Council of Teachers of English for the Outstanding Teaching of English, a Kohl Fellowship recipient, and local Teacher of the Year, Joan was one of the advisors of a nationally recognized literary/art journal and under her guidance, her students consistently won state poetry writing contests. Since retiring, she has taught workshops in poetry, prose, and Native American-style flute. A member of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets for almost 40 years, Joan served as a regional vice president, co-edited the 2012 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar with her husband Jeffrey, and currently serves as co-chairman of the Triad Contest. She has four poetry chaps/books, including the sold-out Sensible Shoes, 2009 winner of the Alabama Poetry Society's chapbook competition, Myopic Nerve, Motherless Child, and He Thought the Periodic Table Was a Portrait of God, available from Finishing Line Press. Winner of the 2011 regional poetry award from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Society, Joan has also received awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin People and Ideas, Peninsula Pulse, Free Verse, and English Journal; has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, LOCKDOWN 2020, Allegro & Adagio Dance Anthology, and Last Walk: Using Poetry to Grieve and Remember our Pets. Joan has also published a crown of sonnets, Happily Ever After, whimsically illustrated by her husband Jeffrey, as well as creative nonfiction, magazine articles, and musical compositions for the Native American-style flute. She lives in Port Edwards, WI.
Workshops are free and a benefit of membership, but please register in advance.
Workshop 1, May 16: Craft talk.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEuceGoqj8pGN0pFC_-0NNH8dCpimgmlELc#/registration
Workshop 2, June 13: Poetry feedback.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUld-ihrD8jG9cz3GQMjQOUOSo8gNZlq-RB#/registration