BWA Poetry Circle

When One is Not Enough: Linked Poems and Poem Series
Sometimes a concept or a narrative arc is too big for a single poem. Sometimes one poem begets another, and that one begets another still. Sometimes a motif, image, or a trope haunts our poems, demanding more and more attention. This session, offered by Michele Battiste, will explore serial and linked poems, the challenges they present, the questions they raise, and the opportunities they offer. Michele will offer a craft talk about a poem series in her most recent collection, Waiting for the Wreck to Burn, and she will guide us through generative exercises to discover the poem series that are lurking in our own notebooks.
Michele Battiste is the author of Waiting for the Wreck to Burn (Trio House, 2019), Uprising ( Black Lawrence, 2014), and Ink for an Odd Cartography ( Black Lawrence, 2009). She is also the author of several chapbooks, including Left: Letters to Strangers (Grey Book, 2014). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, Memorious, and Women's Studies Quarterly, among others.
Michele has taught poetry workshops for Wichita State University, the Prison Arts Program in Hutchinson, KS, Gotham Writers' Workshops, and Teen Ink. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, she has received grants and awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, AWP, the Center for the American West, the Jerome Foundation, and the NY State Senate. She lives in Colorado where she works for The Nature Conservancy, raising money to save the planet.