Upcoming 2/21/26: Small Songs: Using Form to Create Poems that Sing – Workshop with Ellen Austin-Li

• Date: Saturday, Feb 21
• Time: 10:00am – 1:00pm ET
• Open to: All Gender, 16+
• Location: WWfaC Building
• Tuition: $39

Form is the wave, emptiness the water.
– Buddhist writer Thich Nhat Hanh

After great pain, a formal feeling comes
-Emily Dickinson – (372)

Contemporary poetry tends toward free verse, but many poets continue to write in traditional forms. Some poets claim that following the steps for writing formal poems, such as sonnets, helps them approach challenging subjects. In this three-hour workshop, Ellen Austin-Li will facilitate a review of several poetic forms, some modern variations on these forms, and note a few new invented forms. We will spend time with poems that employ repetition, such as sonnets, villanelles, and pantoums, and then turn to some modern invented forms such as duplexes and golden shovels. We will read and discuss examples of formal poetry, with ample time reserved for drafting poems.

For details and/or to register for the Friday evening Free Reading, click here.

[CANCELLATION POLICY: Tuition is non-refundable. Tuition can be credited towards a future class if the student withdraws 14 days prior to the beginning of the start of the class and must be used within one (1) year of receipt. There is also no refund for individually missed classes.]

Ellen Austin-Li’s 2025 collection, Incidental Pollen—a Trio Award finalist and Wisconsin Poetry Series semi-finalist—is the runner-up to Madville Publishing’s Arthur Smith Poetry Prize. Finishing Line Press published her chapbooks Firefly and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic. Ellen is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net-nominated poet whose work appears in many journals and anthologies, including SWIMM, Salamander, The Maine Review, Lily Poetry Review, and One Art. Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) has supported her work. Ellen holds an MFA in Poetry from the Solstice program, and curates Poetry at Artifact (formerly Poetry Night at Sitwell’s) in Cincinnati, where she lives. Find her here: https://ellenaustinli.me/