Have you ever wanted to write a poem but not known where to start? Has writer’s block ever prevented you from generating new pieces? What if, in these moments, you could turn to your Twitter feed, your favorite novel, or a newspaper clipping to create a poem? What if the words didn’t always have to come from you?

In this class, we’ll explore found poetic forms, meaning forms of poetry that come from an external source. We’ll play with centos, blackout and erasure poems, collage poems, and more, and learn how we can assemble language in new ways to create works that really surprise us. We’ll create poems we never could’ve dreamt up on our own and talk about how the source material we pick can have provocative meaning. Can a blackout poem based on a political speech be a form of activism? Can a poem collaged from your family’s group text thread provide an intimate look into your culture? We’ll look at works by poets who play with found forms, such as Jennifer S. Cheng, Kate Baer, Austin Kleon, and Eloisa Amezcua.

For writers age 13 - 18 ONLY. Register here!