Have you ever written a cringeworthy love poem? Do you want to make sure that your love poems never come off as trite or corny? On the flip side, have you ever read a love poem and wondered how the poet reached such ecstatic and rhapsodic heights? If you can answer yes to any of the questions above, then this workshop is for you.

Welcoming to poets who are just getting started, poets who are just trying to get into the swing of things, as well as more established and seasoned poets, this workshop will help you generate new material and craft points for conjuring effective and emotive—not cringey or corny—love poems.

In this workshop, we will closely read and imitate the style and content of poems by Rachel McKibbens, Kevin Young, Sharon Olds, Robert Hass, Sonia Sanchez, Federico García Lorca, and others. This practice will ground and orient our writing, so that our love poems will speak the full volume of our feeling, and not fall victim to cliché and easy constructions.

Romance With No Cringe: The Art of the Love Poem | Led by Douglas Manuel