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Virtual Poetry Events to Attend This October: Finding Poetry Community

Maybe it’s the anticipation of big, shareable meals and cozy holidays, or maybe it’s the collective energy of back-to-school season, but October has a way of making us want to be in community. What better way than to connect with others who share your passion for creativity, reading, and writing? With these virtual events, you can cozy up in your space while still spending time and exchanging ideas with others—and with these virtual events you can find that community  from anywhere in the world. 

 

Poetry Society of New York’s “All Poets Are Thieves” Virtual Workshop

Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. EST. 

 

In the age of rapidly growing AI, the concept of linguistic “thievery” is more complicated and controversial than ever but this generative, creative workshop from the Poetry Society of New York offers a more positive and revolutionary way to think through it. By stating that “all poets are thieves,” this workshop—led by Chelsea Harlan, a winner of the American Poetry Review First Book Prize—examines writing as a communal and ancestral art, one which necessarily builds on work’s of the past to continue the genre’s future. The workshop will explore collage poetry, centos, and other “recycled” forms to create homaged but wholly original works. 

 

National Association for Poetry Therapy’s Virtual Open Mic Night

Sunday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. EST.

 

Poetry has many therapeutic benefits and can help its readers and performers regulate their emotions, express their internal world, and more. This is the mission that National Association for Poetry Therapy supports and strives to amplify. This open mic, led by social worker and poet Alma Maria Rolfs, invites participants to read their poetry as a way of working through their feelings and holding space for others. 

 

Poetry Foundation’s Necropastoral Poetry Workshop

Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 10 a.m. CT.

 

Workshops from the Poetry Foundation are always fascinating and unexpected, and this month’s offering is no different. Led by Maggie Queeney, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize and the director of adult educational programming at the foundation, this workshop goes beyond the typical nature writing exercise  and instead asks participants to write about what it means to live through climate change and the environment’s rapid decay. How can writers make room for both nature’s persistent beauty alongside rage and grief? This workshop includes reading and discussion of poems that do just that, along with a generative prompt. 

 

National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Phillis Wheatley Inspired Poetry Workshop

Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 12 p.m. EST.

 

This workshop celebrates and continues the legacy set by Phillis Wheatley, the first African American published poet. Specifically, the workshop will delve into how Wheatley’s thorough examination of the self led to vulnerable, widely resonating works. Participants will hear some of Wheatley’s most beloved verses, as well as try out her style and forms. Anthony McPherson, a viral and award-winning slam poet, will host the event. 

 

Nebraska Poetry Society Workshop with Lisa Fay Coutley

Sunday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m. CT.

 

How can our most personal memories and deepest challenges inform our poetry? By writing these truths, can it become easier to let them go? These are the intense and ongoing questions at the heart of the Nebraska Poetry Society’s workshop with Lisa Fay Coutley, who won the Black River Chapbook Competition and the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition. Coutley explores how to write from the body and how to give one’s writing over to the influences of both trauma and grief. 

 

Looking for even more ways to infuse your autumn with poetry? Try out our writing prompts for fall-themed eco-poems or get excited for spooky season with our poetry pairings for classic Halloween costumes.