Michael Dechane and I are hosting a new virtual salon for poetry discussions on Slack.
As he put it, we’re there for:
- Serious, thoughtful engagement with the craft of making poems … Not po-biz chatter, or self-promotion/marketing/platform-building.
- A wide diversity of perspectives about what poetry is and how to make a poem … Not attempts to exclude, belittle, or own the corner on defining poetry/poets/poems.
- The concrete, lived, and particular details of how you’ve responded to a book, essay, craft lecture, or poem … Not just a link to your mentor’s memoir.
- Encouragement to keep doing the work, and to get back to work … Not (at least primarily) using this as a space for workshopping your work.
- Respectful, accessible dialog among peers, as well as possibilities for small-scale mentoring … Not elitist criticism, a deluge of Academic Speak, or mansplaining of any sort.
If you’re interested, check it out here.