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Joy of Creation: A Generative Poetry Workshop
**Please note all times are listed in EST**

March 29, 2023
7:00 - 8:30 pm EST

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Art is everywhere and you can create a poem or story from just about anything. Have you ever written a poem from a list? Have you ever used your senses to stimulate your imagination? Have you ever stared at the pictures on the wall and wondered what they are showing you? Have you ever tried to summarize your life story in just a few words?

Tanya shows writers at any stage how to turn a simple shopping list into poetry, how to compose 45-word, even 6-word poems using your senses, how to tell the story behind the pictures on your walls, and how to get in touch with your creativity by finding joy in the everyday!


Tanya Ko Hong (Hyonhye) is an internationally published poet, translator, and cultural curator championing bilingual poetry and poets. Born and raised in South Korea, she immigrated to the USA at the age of eighteen. She holds an MFA degree from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Tanya’s work has won the the Dritëro Agolli award, at the  International Korçare Poetry Festival, Yun Doon-ju Korean-American Literature Award, Ko Won’s 10th Literary Award was a finalist in Frontier’s Chapbook Contest, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Tanya is the author of five books, including The War Still Within (KYSO Flash Press, 2019). Her work appears in Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, Allium, Entropy, Cultural Weekly, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly (The Feminist Press), great weather for MEDIA, the Choson Ilbo, and The Korea Times, among others. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.


Act Like A Writer, Think Like An Editor: Getting Your Manuscript Ready
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

***Same exact class being offered on 2 dates.  Choose your date below to register. ***

April 12, 2023
4:00 - 6:00 PM EST

Register for April 12th

May 17, 2023
4:00 - 6:00 PM EST

Register for May 17th


So you want to write a book and get published. In this two-part course, author and fifteen-year publishing insider Christine Pride explores practical and critical questions that every writer who has a dream of being published must consider: What are agents and editors really looking for? How do I know if I have a marketable idea? How do I know if my book is any good? It’s so competitive out there, so how can I increase my chances of getting an agent? Is it all just hopeless? (Spoiler alert: no!)

This course, designed to be an expert guide for every step in the process, will focus on idea development, elements of craft, and the editorial process. We will explore what makes projects exciting and marketable to agents and editors. We will discuss how to evaluate and improve your work, as well as the critical components to a successful book. And finally, we will discuss the three Ps: how to polish, package, and pitch your projects.

The session will be interactive—come prepared to discuss your ideas and books, whatever stage you’re at in the process. We will have exercises and prompts to help you think about ways to improve/refine your book based on an editor’s eye, identify the audience for your project, and hone how you think and talk about your project (the ever important “sell”). By the end of this first session, you’ll be able to think critically about the merits of your story, its audience, and how to reach and entice that audience: In other words, you’ll be thinking like an editor!

Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and longtime publishing veteran. She’s held editorial posts at many different trade imprints, including Doubleday, Broadway, Crown, Hyperion, and Simon & Schuster. As an editor, Christine has published a range of books, with a special emphasis on inspirational stories and memoirs, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. As a freelance editorial consultant, she does select editing and proposal/content development, as well as teaching and coaching, and pens a regular column—“Race Matters”—for Cup of Jo. She lives in New York City.


Poetics of Incantation
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

April 19, 2023
4:00 - 5:30 PM EST

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As poets, we speak song into being, speak beyond the finality of language, speak to address the dead, speak to be spoken to. In this workshop, we will explore the incantatory form of anaphora, discussing the power and limitations of repetitive utterance, that ephemeral & powerful “carrying back.” Participants can expect to read a selection of poems written with anaphora and to participate in a generative prompt. Let us intone, together.

Raena Shirali is the author of two collections of poetry. Her first book, GILT (YesYes Books, 2017), won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and her second, summonings (Black Lawrence Press, 2022), won the 2021 Hudson Prize. Winner of a Pushcart Prize & a former Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University, Shirali is also the recipient of prizes and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Cosmonauts Avenue. Formerly a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine, Shirali now serves as Faculty Advisor for Folio—a literary magazine dedicated to publishing works by undergraduate students at the national level. She holds an MFA in Poetry from The Ohio State University and is an Assistant Professor of English at Holy Family University. The Indian American poet was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and now lives in Philadelphia.


How to Make Money with Poetry
**Please note all times are listed in EST**

April 26, 2023
1:00 - 2:30 PM EST

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How to make money with poetry is a workshop based on my twenty four years as a working poet. I've bought a house ,paid off $30,000 in debt and over $3,000,000 in Medical Bills with my Earnings from poetry as well as my day to day expenses. This workshop will cover the six markets you can make money from poetry, the six levels of achievement in poetry and how much you can make after you reach each level. An Introduction to "Bardic Law" and how it gives you the basic method for setting your prices as a poet. a few tips on how to make more money regardless of what level you're at. A little bit about me. closing tips and if there is time a brief Q$A

Lawrence Berger Is the author of ten Poetry books. one had the honor of being chosen By the philosophy department at St. John Fisher college as a text book for their classes. He has also written a self-help guide which has sold over 30,000 copies. He has co -written five screenplays based on one of his poems and done performances on the West Coast and in upstate New York! He has appeared on over seven podcasts.


Embodying Queer Stories

May 2 - June 20, 2023 (8 sessions)
7:00 - 9:00 pm EST

Registration Instructions:

Please complete this form to apply for registration.  Once your material is reviewed, you will be sent a code to use for registering:  https://forms.gle/w9vYtJQxZXkW4sLt7


This eight-week course is open to 12 LGBTQIA+ writers. We will meet virtually on Tuesdays from 7 PM to 9 PM, starting on May 2, 2023.

Informed by the blueprint set forth in Felicia Rose Chavez’s The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, this eight-week course is open to 12 LGBTQIA+ writers who seek to center the embodied experience of their characters, regardless of the genre of their work.* The world is shaped by patriarchal white supremacist power structures, and the traditional workshop table is no different. It’s time to change that. It’s time to write our stories in our voices. Writing through the body is key. When we write through the body, we pay attention to what happens inside of us when we experience trauma and its aftershocks. When we write through the body, we pick up a pen and paper and let our words pour out, unfiltered. Writing through the body is an act of resistance. Let’s build a collaborative and supportive community of LGBTQIA+ writers. Our stories are life-giving and life-saving, but, unfortunately, even as Pride has been co-opted by rainbow capitalism, our stories are still marginalized. Whether you are a seasoned workshop participant or have never attended a workshop before, all are welcome. Together, we will create a space to share our work that is safe, constructive and inspiring.

*NOTE: While all genres are welcome, Jenni’s writing, editing and teaching experience is primarily in fiction and creative nonfiction.

What Makes This Workshop Different?
1. No gag rule. Traditional workshops implement what’s often called the “gag rule,” where a writer whose work is being discussed must stay silent for the duration of that discussion. This is detrimental to the writer and to the workshop as a whole. Instead, writers will meet briefly with me prior to having their piece workshopped. Together, we will come up with a list of questions you’d like to pose to the workshop table. During workshop, you can open the discussion by reading your work aloud, asking others to read, or guiding us through a related activity. Then you will lead the workshop discussion and I will support you. If, for instance, you feel the discussion is becoming unhelpful, I want you to say so, and I will help you steer the conversation in another direction. Remember: You know your work better than anyone, and we are here to help you more fully realize your vision.

2. You write the syllabus. Seriously. Before class starts, I’ll ask you all to tell us three writers or artists of any kind that inspire you. I’ll compile these, along with some of my own favorite pieces of art and literature, into a shared document that we can all refer to during the course.

3. Freewriting. We’ll freewrite as much as we can during class, and I’ll come up with prompts inspired by the work you submit. You are encouraged to write with a pen and paper rather than on a computer or phone, but no matter what writing implements you use, we’ll try writing without stopping, without crossing anything out, without censoring ourselves. If you want, you can share what you’ve written with us. If we don’t have as much time during the class for freewriting as we’d like (on days when more than one person is being workshopped, for example), I encourage you to take these freewriting exercises home!

4. Applying critique to your own work. It is very easy to find fault with someone else’s work. It is far more difficult and more useful—for both you and your peers—when you strive to imagine your way into their mind, to think deeply about the intention behind their words and provide feedback in a way that helps them accomplish their goals. Rather than writing critique letters of one another’s work, I’ll ask you to write one critique letter to yourself before the course is over. This letter can be a critique of one of your submissions, a list of things you love about your work and elements of craft that you want to continue honing, a culmination of everything you’ve learned, a revision plan. It can be anything you want it to be, but the goal is to practice examining your work with a generous but critical eye.


Jenni Milton is a queer writer who studied at Connecticut College, Oxford University and the Columbia Publishing Course. After graduating, she worked in book and magazine publishing at One Story, Oxford University Press, and Grove Atlantic. She earned her MFA at the Programs in Writing at UC Irvine, where she taught composition, fiction writing and literary journalism. In her final year of the program, she was Fiction Editor of the Pushcart Prize-winning journal Faultline. She now works as a copywriter, teaches for Blue Stoop, volunteers at H&H Books, and plays violin with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra and the Roxborough Orchestra. She has published work in Juked and A Distant Memory Zine and is working on a novel.


The Road to Publication
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

May 19, 2023
11:00am - 1:00pm EST

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You’re ready to go! You have or soon will have a finished project ready for the world. Now what? This session will deal with the tricky business of getting an agent and editor interested in your project. We will break down the intimidating “behind the scenes” of the publishing world, so you can have a deeper understanding of the true ins and outs of publishing. This behind the scenes tour will include a range of helpful insights—from the best approach for getting an agent to what editors are really saying about you and your book, to the realities of the marketplace and how you can put your best foot forward.

This session will also include fun and helpful exercises, such as “Can you spot the bestseller?” We will review query letters and pitches so you can leave the session equipped to successfully write your own. We will discuss common mistakes, road blocks, and pitfalls writers should avoid as you navigate this process. You can expect to leave the session armed with lasting knowledge and approaches that will improve your chances on the road to publication.


Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and longtime publishing veteran. She’s held editorial posts at many different trade imprints, including Doubleday, Broadway, Crown, Hyperion, and Simon & Schuster. As an editor, Christine has published a range of books, with a special emphasis on inspirational stories and memoirs, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. As a freelance editorial consultant, she does select editing and proposal/content development, as well as teaching and coaching, and pens a regular column—“Race Matters”—for Cup of Jo. She lives in New York City.





Credit/Refund Policy: If you withdraw from a workshop or class:

  • At least 10 business days prior to class: you will receive a full refund or credit towards another class
  • 9 business days prior to class until 1 business day before: you will receive a credit towards another class
  • Within 1 business day : you will receive no refund or credit.

Please note that notification of withdrawal must be processed via email writers@iwwg.orgIf IWWG must cancel a class for any reason, we will provide a full refund or credit towards another workshop. 




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Phone: (617) 792-7272

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The International Women’s Writing Guild

888 8th Avenue, #537
New York, NY 10019


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