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Community Class: Reading Poetry to Enrich Your Own

An informal, hour-long class focused on thoughtful conversation and building close-reading skills, with optional take-home writing prompts.

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Community Class: Reading Poetry to Enrich Your Own

Community Class: Reading Poetry to Enrich Your Own

An informal, hour-long class focused on thoughtful conversation and building close-reading skills, with optional take-home writing prompts.

Pricing
  • General Registration
    $ 0.00
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About

Designed to support the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program Third Thursday Poetry Open Mic series, the primary goal of this hour-long class is to deepen our skills for close-reading of poems and conversation about them.

We'll take a look at the work of the featured poets at the June 18 Thursday open mic. The instructor, Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Erin Malone, will provide a prompt or two for you to take home and try in your own writing practice. 

Details

  • There's no need to bring anything other than a notebook and a pen for taking notes in this class, if you like.
  • The Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program was started in 2021 by an ad-hoc group of local poets. It became a non-profit corporation under the fiscal sponsorship of BARN in August 2023.

Class Policies

Ages 16 and up are welcome.

Instructor
Erin Malone

Erin, Bainbridge Island poet laureate for 2026-27, is the author of Site of Disappearance, a finalist for the National Poetry Series (Ornithopter Press, 2023), Hover (Tebot Bach, 2015), and the chapbook What Sound Does It Make (Concrete Wolf, 2008). Born in New Mexico and raised in Nebraska and Colorado, she earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. For many years, she’s taught in community spaces as well as at elementary schools and universities. Former editor of Poetry Northwest, Erin’s honors include the Coniston Prize from Radar Poetry and the Robert Creeley Memorial Prize from Marsh Hawk Press. She has received grants and fellowships from Washington State Artist Trust, 4Culture, Jack Straw, and the Colorado Council on the Arts; and residency support from Kimmel-Harding Nelson Center, The Anderson Center, Ucross, Jentel, and Monson Arts. Her poems have appeared in Epoch, FIELD, New Ohio Review, Salamander, Cimarron, Beloit Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She lives on Bainbridge Island and is married to novelist Shawn Wong.

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