From public libraries to public schools

From youth group homes to retirement communities

From college classrooms to tallgrass prairie retreats

I love the power of what poetry workshops accomplish

The Hidden Purpose of Workshops

As part of a generous sabbatical from Washburn University, I attended the 2023 Naropa University Summer Writing Program. I went with the goals of reminding myself to never stop learning and to find nourishment to never stop writing poetry, which I did stop for almost a year to work on my At the Movies prose.

CA Conrad’s hospitable and nurturing workshop taught me so much! They said, most of all, that rituals need to be nutured for writing. It is not abour finding time to write, but to write in the midst of whatever one does via rituals.

I am changing my workshops to share what I learned, as well as create rituals for others by a face-to-face conversation where I intuit where one can make writing a habit again.

Alongside traditional forms of writing, so that there is a shared language (what couplets are for, what can a sonnet accomplish, etc.), I also share ways for documentary poetics, somatic poetics, sound and performance poetics, Tesla-based (sound, vibration, and frequency), finding joy and play as anchors for writing through trauma, experimental forms like Oulipo, erasures, anagrams, number-based poetics, and so on.

The hidden purpose of workshops is to learn where to find community and to develop those ritual-habits so one never needs to worry about not writing.

Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau Update!

I recently revised my Speaker’s Bureau topic of “Poets of Kansas” to become an interactive, non-judgmental poetry workshop. In other words, there was a fee for an additional poetry workshop. Instead, I am waiving the fee. I feel my time is best spent that way--to encourage poetry writing during my visit, too! 

Poets of Topeka Interactive Poetry Workshop

Presentation by: Dennis Etzel Jr

Sponsored by the Speakers Bureau of Humanities Kansas

Kansas has a rich history of wonderful poets, and this interactive workshop will explore and present the work of eight contemporary poets who roam the wheat fields, tallgrass, and both city and rural landscapes of the Sunflower State, fashioning words into moving stanzas. We will also draw inspiration from these poets, reflecting on our own Kansas experiences in a safe, inclusive, judgment-free space. Participants will leave with ideas for writing their own poems, if not a finished poem.