Join us for a Virtual Craft Class & Reading with Kai Coggin

Craft Class will run from 11 AM-1PM EST. Followed by a reading from 1:05 PM-1:20 PM.

Registration on this page required in order to gain access to the Zoom link.

Once you have registered on this page you will receive an email with the link you need to join the event on Zoom – or you can simply return to this page and click on “Access the event.” But you will only be able to access this AFTER you have registered.

$10 suggested donation for the instructor (not required)

The Open Letter: What is an open letter?

An open letter is a letter, often critical, addressed to a particular person or group of people, but intended to be widely distributed to a wider audience. The letter does not usually get a reply, but it is written to shed light on a subject, an individual, or a group as a form of protest or grievance. It can also be used for praising and honoring something or someone.

In this workshop, Office Hours writers will read a selection of poetry with examples of the Open Letter. We will discuss various aspects of form, craft, and attention to figurative language used by the different poets in the packet, and finish with time to write an open letter poem from a selection of prompts provided by Kai. There will be time for sharing at the end.

Purchase Kai Coggin’s Mining for Stardust (Flowersong Press, 2021, paperback, $18) from the Bureau.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

KAI COGGIN (she/her) is the author of MINING FOR STARDUST (FlowerSong Press 2021), INCANDESCENT (Sibling Rivalry Press 2019), WINGSPAN (Golden Dragonfly Press 2016), and PERISCOPE HEART (Swimming with Elephants Publications 2014), as well as a spoken word album SILHOUETTE (2017). She is a queer woman of color who thinks Black Lives Matter, a teaching artist in poetry with the Arkansas Arts Council and Arkansas Learning Through the Arts, and the host of the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country—Wednesday Night Poetry. Recently awarded the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award and named “Best Poet in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times, her fierce and powerful poetry has been nominated four times for The Pushcart Prize, as well as Bettering American Poetry 2015, and Best of the Net 2016 and 2018. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Cultural Weekly, SOLSTICE, Bellevue Literary Review, TAB, Entropy, SWWIM, Split This Rock, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, Luna Luna, Blue Heron Review, Tupelo Press, West Trestle Review, and elsewhere. Coggin is Associate Editor at The Rise Up Review. She lives with her wife and their two adorable dogs in the valley of a small mountain in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop is a community-based writing workshop for poets who show a demonstrated commitment to writing. The workshop fellowship culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are womxn-identified. Our Craft Classes are free and open to the public with RSVP.