Part of The Poetry Society of New York's Weekly Virtual Workshop Series.

With poet Sarah Esmi!

There's a saying attributed to Flannery O'Connor that is "To be a painter, you must first love the smell of paint." This workshop is designed to bring writers back to their most fundamental and vital tool: language. We will learn to fall in love again with individual words that make a piece soul-stirring. We will read an excerpt or two, discuss the writers' word choices, and extract words and/or phrases that will serve as diving boards for new poems. Come ready to roll your sleeves up, come curious, come as you are.

About the Instructor: Sarah Esmi (she/her) is an Iranian-American mother, writer, collage artist, producer, director and lawyer. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her writing has been published in Calyx, Dime Show Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, The San Pedro River Review, Soundings East, Papeachu Press and others, and produced at venues such as Dixon Place and Abrons Arts Center. After receiving a Fulbright award, Sarah pursued a career in public interest law, including representing clients in immigration court, on death row in Louisiana, in Brooklyn criminal court, in psychiatric units throughout New York City, and currently advocates for clients in administrative hearings throughout Los Angeles. Sarah is co-founder of counterclaim and recently led the More Art fellowship program, for which she offered mentorship, writing workshops, open studios and moderation of artist talks to public and socially engaged artists. Guest speaking credits include Pratt, NYU and CUNY. Sarah is also a graduate of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a trained facilitator, and a 2023 recipient of the Kit Reed Travel Fund, an award for BIPOC women and non-binary writers.

* *This workshop will take place on Zoom.**