Online Writer's/Poet's Critique Groups and Open Mics

Poetry Critique Group is a weekly poetry workshop during which we examine the submitted work of two poets. We discuss the poets’ 1-2 poems at length, typically for around 45 minutes, and provide a variety of feedback based on what the poet is looking to glean from the workshop. We generally keep workshops to 8-12 participants to allow everyone the opportunity to provide in-depth feedback.

If this is your first attendance, we ask that you please email us at peoplesinkpoetry@gmail.com so that you can get a feel for how the workshop is run. Please include in your email your goals as a poet, and how the critique group can best help you reach those goals. Providing your email also enables us to send you the poems we will be discussing before each meeting.

*PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR ATTENDEES DO NOT RSVP ON MEETUP.*
IF THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST TIME ATTENDING OUR CRITIQUE GROUP, PLEASE CONTACT US AT THECRITIQUERY@GMAIL.COM TO ARRANGE A DATE TO OBSERVE ONE OF OUR UPCOMING MEETINGS.

Greetings, fellow writer.

Do you seek to someday have a short story published in a literary magazine? Do you dream of finally finishing that novel that’s been living in the back of your head for the past few years now?

Congratulations, because you’ve found what you’ve been looking for, and it won’t cost you a dime. We’re The Critiquery, an online home for writers who want to have live discussions of submitted work. Instead of a giant, impersonal critique forum, we offer weekly workshops of no more than 15 people where you can ask specific questions and get specific answers. All workshops are held over ZOOM so you can participate from anywhere in the world.

We’re open to any narrative prose, fiction or nonfiction. Learn how to receive and give the feedback that is so essential to the success of any author. Whether it’s the first step in your literary journey or the thousandth, take the next one with our trained facilitators and dedicated community of writers.

For more information on The Critiquery, please visit our website - thecritiquery.com.

We look forward to seeing you!

This critique group is kept private to preserve the privacy of critique submissions. Most don't RSVP on Meetup.

To join, please email Erik at tigurini@protonmail.com and include in your message: (1) A description of your current writing project(s), (2) Your goals for joining this writer's critique group, (3) And a brief history of yourself as a writer, including past projects, education, and related. Your message doesn't have to be anything fancy. We just wish to make sure that you're serious about observing and that your intentions/projects are a good fit for this critique group.

About:
As the title suggests, we critique writing that is speculative (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, surrealism, slipstream, etc.), philosophical (idea-driven, writing with a message, etc.), and experimental (unusual language, visual/musical aspects, transgressive, etc.). All writing submitted for critique should fit at least one of these categories. We are happy to include work in all formats (poetry, prose, playwriting, screenplay, libretto, graphic novel, and hybrid) and for any audiences (adults, YA, and kids).

Some Example Works:
Of course, the written works and authors that inspire us may vary, and widely. Nonetheless, here's a list of some written works and authors that have inspired us, and which we might use as an (incomplete) list of the kind of writing that could be submitted to this critique group.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Ice, Anna Kavan; Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick; The Waves, Virginia Woolf; The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin; The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Shulz; Stories of Your Life, Ted Chiang; The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser; The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa; The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft; Don't Bite The Sun, Tanith Lee; Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud; The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald; The Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin; Moby Dick, Herman Melville; Kindred, Octavia E Butler; The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood; The Divine Comedy, Dante; The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle; A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen; Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire; Blindsight, Peter Watts; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Leguin; Sweat, Lynn Nottage; The Song of Maldoror, Comte de Lautremont; Solaris, Stanislaw Lem; Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy; Dune, Frank Herbert; Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon.

Critique Group Structure:

• Meets weekly Thursdays from 6:00pm-7:30pm PT / 9:00pm-10:30pm ET
• Submission length maximum: 20,000 words (many submissions are shorter).
• Back-to-back weekly submissions for novelists + long form writers are encouraged.
• Participants are expected to closely read the submission and arrive prepared to discuss it in depth for 1.5 hours.
• If, for whatever reason, a participant can't read the submission in time for our meeting and/or can't attend our meeting, that participant is urged to provide a written (or audio recorded) summary of feedback to the submitting writer through DM on our Discord.
• Active participation is required to ensure all members' best interests. A member can be removed from the group if found absent in critique sessions for more than 3 months. Should one wish to rejoin the group, please message me directly either in Discord or via email.

Community:
We're a serious yet fun group of writers with eclectic projects and tastes. We're always looking to meet new friends and grow our community, so we hope you'll consider observing a critique group - and if we're a good fit for one another, continuing to hang out with us Thursday evenings!

We meet on the Blinding Cyclops Discord server. Join link: https://discord.gg/urPBsNTWuK

You can read our full syllabus under the category "Writer's Critique Groups." The rest of the writer's critique group channels are kept hidden to preserve the privacy of critique submissions, but will be opened up to you when your observation has been confirmed.

Commitments:
This critique group's structure expects a weekly attendance commitment, so it's only right for writers who are committed to writing and critiquing.

Please join me for a deep dive into the Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poet and the time is very ripe to revisit what is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest pieces of writing to come from Europe. For it is very Continental and is a crowning glory of what is best in Western intellectual and artistic quest of the past 3000 years or so. Together with the Ancients, Dante, Milton, and Shakespeare, Rilke is the fulcrum on which so much of modern writing turns and pivots.

For the first Duino meeting, we are going to read Elegy 1 & 2. I am relying primarily on David Young translation, because it is admirably sensitive to the modern Anglo linguistic demand. For the backup, I recommend the Mitchell translation - this is more 19th century informed. We are going to read out of the Young during the meeting and reference Mitchell only if needed.

We are going to live read the text line by line from start to finish and dive into conversation about what the poet is expressing. Do research, read before the meeting, and so on.

Duino Elgies is a demanding read. It is one of those unequalled flights of poetic fancy: inspired, wise, archaic, genuine, and mysterious. Proceed accordingly.

We will read all the Elegies over 5 meetings.