The Craft and Heart of Writing Poetry for Children 2019

Overview

If you have a passion for writing children’s poetry, then please join us. Beginning poets, seasoned writers, teachers, and dreamers are all welcome.

Would you love to work in an intimate setting with published poets, make new friends, and immerse yourself in writing poetry and working on the craft? Then this workshop is for you. Our goal is to bring poets together to delve into the heart, joy, and craft of poetry.

What You’ll Learn

We will be discussing, learning, writing, revising, and working on the craft of writing poetry for children. This workshop will offer plenty of interaction, direction, and free creative writing time. We’ll focus on all elements of poetry, from the importance of word choice to surprising metaphors. There will be plenty of writing exercises to inspire new poems followed by group discussions. As a group, we’ll brainstorm ideas, share our writing process, and generate original poems. You’ll be inspired to create new poems or bring works in progress to polish.

Who Should Attend

All poets are welcome!

Agenda

Day 1
Afternoon
Arrival and check in.

Evening
Appetizers & Dinner.
At dinner: Spotlight on attendees! We will spend our first quality time sharing a meal and, as a group at dinner, we will have a playful round robin allowing us to get to know you better.

After dinner: Have coffee or wine out in the big room while we will go over what to expect at our workshop over the next few days, along with time for a Q & A.

Day 2
Morning
Breakfast.
After a brief introduction, we’ll start right in with our first mini-workshop on craft. Then, after discussing a few great examples of poems, we will give you time to write your own based on a related poetry prompt. Immediately after, we’ll have a large group reading and interactive session where Georgia and Rebecca, along with all poets will give impromptu revision suggestions.

Afternoon
Lunch.
Midafternoon Critique Session.
After lunch, we’ll have one-on-one critique times with either Rebecca or Georgia, while the rest of the group has free writing time using a variety of poetry prompts.

Until we meet for appetizers you can use this time to write, take a quick nap in your cabin, or go for a walk on the beautiful trails.

Evening
Appetizers & Dinner.

After dinner, we’ll gather outside around the fire (weather permitting) with hot chocolate and s’mores, more poetry talk and a surprise guest.

Day 3
Morning
Breakfast.
After a brief introduction, we’ll begin with our second mini-workshop on craft. Then we’ll gather together into small groups and work creatively to both challenge you and build on your poetry skills.

Afternoon
Lunch.
Midafternoon Critique Session.
After lunch, we’ll have the remaining one-on-one critique times with either Rebecca or Georgia, while the rest of the group has free writing time using a variety of poetry prompts.
Until we meet for appetizers you can use this time to write, take a quick nap in your cabin, or go for a walk on the beautiful trails.

Evening
Appetizers & Dinner.
We welcome Rebecca Davis, senior editor for Boyds Mills Press and WordSong. She’ll join us for appetizers and dinner.

After dinner: Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine for an evening with Rebecca Davis: editorial smorgasbord; a Q & A, find out what manuscripts she’s working on, and where she sees the publishing market going.

Day 4
Morning
Breakfast.
Quick Poetic Look: We’ll have a mock editorial meeting with editor extraordinaire Rebecca Davis. Each poet in our workshop will have the chance to read one short poem as Rebecca offers a few off the cuff comments, suggestions and celebrations.

Afternoon
Lunch & farewells.

Resources

Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Georgia Heard: Collecting Word Treasures
Rebecca Kai Dotlich: One Poet’s Story
Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich: The Magic of Metaphor
Faculty Interview: Poet Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Picture Books: To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme
Writing Poetry for Children
Harvesting Language From the Worlds We Know

Testimonials

“Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Georgia Heard are amazing apart and absolutely magical together. Smart, approachable, creative and supportive. Would attend ANY workshop with either of them again.”

“Georgia and Rebecca were amazing, fun presenters, knew their stuff, gave lots of information, supportive. One-on-one session was very valuable. Their choice of poems was on-spot to exemplify the lesson. Assignments and feedback were valuable. Open, friendly, knowledgeable, honest. what you hope to get!!!”

“Georgia & Rebecca were incredible. The workshop was the perfect blend of instruction, writing, group reading, feedback and guest speakers. Georgia and Rebecca took the time to become “part of the group”, appearing to have as much fun with us as we had with them.”

“Highlights include connecting with all the other writers (all along the writing continuum) to share their experiences. Hearing Lee Bennett Hopkins and Rebecca Davis to understand the hard travels that we all go through from editor and master!…all the struggles (even they go through) and the process of publishing! Of course, Rebecca and Georgia’s amazing travels were inspiring in so many ways.”