About
What is the Village Poetry Workshop?
We are a community of writers without a hierarchy that is dedicated to improving their craft.
Workshopping once seemed synonymous with MFA programs. Inspired by our hosts, Two Dollar Radio, we meet once a month (no MFA required) to discuss original work.
To create literary community, all you need is good people willing to show up.
Why should I join?
You should join because you want to be a better writer and help others to be better writers.
Workshops often fall into two categories: instructional or peer-review. Village Poetry is a peer-review workshop. Specifically, we are for writers who already have a complete draft of a poem, and either want help improving it or want audience feedback.
Village Poetry is made up of a thoughtful community of writers that aim to serve as an impartial audience and offer their peers constructive feedback
"...there is no greater gift as a writer than having an impartial audience (not your mom, dad, partner) give your work their full attention. They can help us see what might make sense to us but not to an audience, can help us lean into our best habits, and start trimming away our worst. Workshopping, especially with this group, has made me a better writer even writing the poems they haven't read."
-a member of the Village Poetry Collective
I'm in, what's next?
If you're interested, email villagepoetrycollective@gmail.com. You can ask for more information or tell us to add you to to the list!
Group members are added to an email thread and sent the poems about a week before the meeting.
You can read the poems in advance and prepare notes for feedback you'd like to share. We encourage you to print the poems out so you can handwrite the notes to give to the poet after the meeting.
Meetings
Meetings are the last Tuesday of every month at 6pm and held at Two Dollar Radio HQ.
The group members are all adults and lead unique and busy lives. We haven't found a good reason to penalize people for not being able to make meetings. We ask that you attend as often as you can, and do come to more meetings than just the ones where your work is being discussed.
If your work is selected, the organizers will email you ahead of time to confirm that you can attend that meeting. Please make sure you attend the meetings where your poem is being discussed, as it is otherwise disrespectful to the people who took time to prepare feedback for your work.
3 poems are discussed per meeting. We allot 20 minutes per poem. If you have time constraints, let us know. These meetings can run long and we are happy to accomodate.
There aren't strict guidelines on how you should offer feedback. Honesty is the most important element. However, make sure your feedback is thoughtful, helpful, and caring. Constructive criticism is important in workshopping, but we expect all to construct with kindness.
Poetry Submission and Guidelines
- Submit all poems in a new email to villagepoetrycollective@gmail.com (do not reply to a previous thread)
- Poems copied directly into an email best maintain original formatting; attached Word docs and Google docs are acceptable, but stylistic formatting may be lost.
- Submissions are welcomed any day any time, but you will receive reminders and encouragement to submit work.
- When a poem was submitted and who needs a chance to have their work reviewed affect which poems are chosen for each meeting. It could take 1-3 months for you work to be discussed, but let us know if timing is a concern.
- Any style of poetry is welcome, and we encourage poetry that challenges us. Be advised: racist, misogynist, queerphobic, xenophobic, or any work with similarly shitty content or attitudes will be rejected.