Your One-Person Writing Workshop

You don’t have to be in a creative writing workshop to thrive as an artist. You certainly don’t have to be in a MFA program either. They’re great if you can get in (and get financial aid) but most of the artists and writers we now think of as The Greats arrived at their practices via untraditional journeys. And thank goodness.

Inspired by a question from one of my students, I thought I’d talk about several ways I create a “workshop” for myself as a poet and writer. I discuss one-to-one exchanges, what I’m looking for when I text friends a screenshot of a poem I’m writing, and how reading is a workshop too.