Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: “Telling Your Story: Poetry & Memoir”– a FREE craft class and reading with author JP Howard.

The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A public reading with JP Howard and members of the Office Hours Workshop will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.

Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com and include your full name, relationship to writing, and a brief bio.

“Telling Your Story: Poetry & Memoir”

Participants will use objects of significance, including family photos, memorabilia, personal narratives and/or oral her/histories to enter memoir-themed poems. We will ask questions that both challenge and inspire us. Whose story are we telling, particularly when writing about loved ones that are no longer with us. How important is it that our poems be historically accurate? When do we give ourselves permission to honestly write our painful Herstories? Whose story are we trying to tell? Is this our story to tell? These are a few of the questions we will explore as we use our personal narratives, photos and oral Her/histories to enter poems. If possible, participants should bring a minimum of 2-3 family photos and/or photos of significance (either actual photos or photos on a tablet/smart phone), 1-2 photos of family memorabilia or objects of significance and come prepared to use oral family Her/histories to write poems that use memory as foundation. Poetic forms written in class may include haibun, persona or narrative poems. Handouts of poems in the memoir genre will be distributed and discussed. Some of the poets we may read in workshop include Angel Nafis, Amber Atiya, Mahogany L. Browne, Elisabet Velasquez, and Pat Parker.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing. The workshop 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 woman-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

JP Howard’s debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians–We Are the Revolution! (2018). JP is a 2019 featured author in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program and the recipient of a 2019 Brooklyn Arts Council grant. She was a Split this Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism finalist and is featured in the Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. JP was the recipient of a Lambda Literary Judith A. Markowitz Emerging Writer Award and has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary, and Astraea. JP curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a NY-based forum offering all writers, but especially women, a monthly venue to collaborate. JP is an Editor-at-Large at Mom Egg Review online. Her poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Academy of American Poets, Anomaly, Apogee Journal, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, Muzzle Magazine, and The Best American Poetry Blog. Her poetry is widely anthologized. JP holds a BA from Barnard College, an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. Visit JP online at: jp-howard.com