Workshop
Sonnetmania: A Workshop on Contemporary Sonnets
A generative, 4-session workshop exploring various innovative, contemporary sonnet forms, including: double sonnets, shadow sonnets, American Sonnets, dedicated sonnets, contrapuntal modes, sonnet coronas, sonnet ballades, curtal sonnets, ekphrastic sonnets, and sonnets in translation. We will flirt with the feel of the sonnet, to paraphrase Marvin Bell, in all its raptures, laments, and furies—assuming an atmosphere of trust, respect, and confidentiality, writers will read sonnets, write sonnets, and share their work with one another, if they desire. Sonnetmania is open to all levels. Pre-registration required. Limited to 15 participants on a first-come, first-serve basis. This workshop is influenced and inspired by The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays(Iowa University Press, January, 2023), edited by Dora Malech and Laura T. Smith — a treasure for sonnet-lovers.
Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her partner and several intense mammals. Recent books include a creative nonfiction chapbook, Ribald (Bull City Press Inch Series, Nov. 2020) and Dor, which won the Wandering Aengus Press Prize (September, 2021). Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Books Prize (April 2018). Alina's poems, essays, and fiction can be found in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, World Literature Today, Pleiades, Poetry, BOMB, Crab Creek Review, and others. She serves as poetry editor for several journals, reviewer and critic for others, and Co-Director of PEN America's Birmingham Chapter. She has served as a judge for numerous literary prizes, including the River Heron Review Poetry Prize, FRiction Literary Prize for Flash Fiction, F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum & Foundation Writing Prize, Poetry Foundation’s Pegasus Award for Literary Criticism, among others. She is currently working on a novel-like creature. More online atwww.alinastefanescuwriter.com.
