Poetry Writing Workshop & Reading: Synonyms for Grief: Writing About Pain Without Writing About It

Synonyms for Grief: Writing About Pain Without Writing About It

Inspired by K.E. Ogden's poem "Synonyms for Grief" and utilizing work from poets Danez Smith, Danielle Mitchell, Harryette Mullen, and others, this generative workshop will present different techniques for transforming past hurts into creative writing in a supportive space. Opportunities to share work aloud will be available but is completely voluntary and not required. Appropriate for writers of prose or poetry as well as beginning writers and non-writers. Though this workshop can be therapeutic, it should not be used in place of professional counseling. Total time: 90 minutes followed by a 30 minute reading of Anne Marie Wells' debut poetry collection, Survived By: A Memoir in Verse + Other Poems (Curious Corvid Publishing).

Anne Marie Wells is a former resident of Jackson Hole. She now lives in the outskirts of D.C. and is the lead faculty member for the DC Chapter of the Community Literature Initiative Poetry Publishing Program through the Sims Library of Poetry and Strategic Partnership Fellow for The Poetry Lab. Her poetry and prose has appeared in many places including Ninth Letter, Platform Review, Sixfold, JH Poetry Box, and others. She won the inaugural Wanderlust Travel Book Award with Wild Dog Press for her Memoir, Happy Iceland and was short-listed for the inaugural Emma Howell Rising Poet Award. She was a winner of the 2023 JH Poetry Box Spring Poetry contest, the winner of the 2021 Crow House Press Poetry Competition, and earned the 2021 Peter K. Hixson Memorial award in poetry presented by Writer's Relief. She was a 2021 Wyoming Woman of Influence nominee; received the 2020 Milestone Award presented by Wyoming Writers, Inc.; and earned the 2020 Rising Star Award presented by the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. Find her online at AnneMarieWellsWriter.com or @AnneMarieWellsWriter