In this 9-week mentorship experience, Erin Rodoni will engage with you as a unique poet. In addition to providing detailed critical feedback on your creative work, she will also take into account the arc and scope of your poems, examining the ways in which they are speaking to and building on each other. She will seek to identify and nurture the ways language, heart, and unconscious material come together in your poetry.
“I am interested in getting to know what draws you to the distilled language of poetry, how you shape and refine language into your own poetic voice(s),” says Erin. “I want to encourage you to explore your recurring themes, images, and obsessions. I don’t want to kill your darlings, I want to meet them.”
This course will take the form of a written correspondence. Every three weeks, you will email Erin a packet consisting of: 1) 3-5 poems for in-depth written feedback; 2) a short critical engagement with reading assignments Erin will select for you, consisting of combinations of poems, prompts, craft essays, and/or poetry collections; and 3) a letter to Erin in which you may bring up any topics of interest or questions about craft, your writing life, submitting your work, or poetry in general. Erin will review and respond to these packets in writing, for a total of three packet responses over nine weeks.
This class is ideal for intermediate writers and above.
Erin Rodoni is the author of two poetry collections: Body, in Good Light (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2017) and A Landscape for Loss (NFSPS Press, 2017), winner of the Stevens Award sponsored by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Her third poetry collection won the 2020 Southern Indiana Review Michael Waters Poetry Prize and was published in fall 2021. Her poems, stories, and reviews have been published in such places as Best New Poets, Poetry Northwest, World Literature Today, and Sixfold, among others. She has been the recipient of an AWP Intro Journals Award, a Ninth Letter Literary Award, and the 2017 Montreal International Poetry Prize. When not writing, she enjoys travel and spending time outdoors with her daughters.
August 19 – October 21
Erin's supportive, attuned, and caring spirit paired with her dreamy creativity and intelligence created a space where I felt I could really step into my own creativity.
Erin tailors her poetry mentorship programs to each writer. It's not a one size fits all approach.
Erin's feedback was a highlight every week!