Stay tuned to this space for future generative workshop offerings!
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Organization testimonials:
I have known Julie for two years and she is one of the most impressive, empathic, and engaging workshop teachers that I have encountered (and hired) over the last decade. In 2021, I hired Julie to lead a creative writing and healing workshop called “Inviting the Subconscious” for my organization Reading Queer, which provides free creative writing workshops for the LGBTQ community and allies. During this generative virtual writing workshop, Julie combined guided meditation and free writing prompts for students to explore the past as a way to bring the present to life. As a teacher, Julie demonstrates exceptional skill and compassion, attention to detail and attention to the personal. She designed meditative exercises and prompts that engaged students on a personal level while showing a genuine, nuanced interest in their lives and experiences. She created a safe space and welcoming community which resulted in one of the most-liked, deeply emotional, and productive writing workshops of the season. --Neil de la Flor, poet and Executive Director of Reading Queer
Student testimonials:
I attend a lot of workshops and Julie E. Bloemeke’s was one of the very best. I love the way she used definitions of poetry as an on-ramp, then had us look at exemplary poems, then took us off on a wild ride to get to our own submerged stuff. Thank you!!! It was a great experience. –Judy Ireland, poet and Executive Director at DePorres Place Literacy Center
I have taken five of Julie’s workshops and have never been disappointed. The workshops are generative and her prompts encourage poets to expand their imaginations. I have surprised myself with where my mind will go when given the opportunity. We played in form, enjambment, syntax, and metaphor. Julie is generous, engaged, and insightful! I would highly recommend her poetry workshops to any writer looking to be challenged. –Holly Jaffe, poet
I had no idea what to expect in attending an online poetry workshop, but I am so glad I participated. It was meditation, creative writing, and a mini-college course all wrapped up into a delicious piece of brain candy. I came away feeling just a tiny bit better of a human being and a more awakened writer. –Andrea Strahan
Questioning the “About”: A 4-week generative workshop series on memory with Julie E. Bloemeke
Often, in describing a poem, we say it is “about” a particular circumstance, person, or event. John Ashbery observes, “I write with experiences in mind, but I don’t write about them, I write out of them.” How does memory play a role in what a poem is “about”? Can a poem be “about”? Do we write through, to, around, or out of experiences?
Join us for a four-week generative poetry workshop series where we explore how memory informs verse composition. Class will open with a poem that navigates sources and experiences of memory, followed by discussion with particular focus on craft, technique, and approach. The poem of the week will also be a launching off point for a take-home writing prompt for the following class. Each session, poets will bring a draft from the previous week for class feedback. Drafts will be due by 5 pm Sunday before the night of class. Please note, all workshops are a creative safe space of support, candor, and encouragement.
Feb 1, Week 1 Place—geographic, metaphorical, emotional
Feb 8, Week 2 Era—date, time, movement, chapter
Feb 15, Week 3 Circumstance/action—event, recollection, exchange
Feb 22, Week 4 Persona—expanding the reach of the “I”