Saturdays, January 10, 24, 31 and February 7, 2026, 1:00PM - 3:00PM
Meetings will take place in the Poetry Center's Alumni Room, Room 205; limit 12 students. General registration opens on Friday, December 12th at 10:00AM.
Twelve-year cancer survivor and prize-winning poet, Pamela Uschuk, will lead this four-week generative poetry workshop for people who have dealt in any way with a left-threatening disease. Whether it be as a patient, as a family member or as a friend. This is not the same class that she taught at the Poetry Center in 2024. Both materials and prompts are new. The moment a person receives the diagnosis of cancer or any life-threatening disease such as ALS, Parkinsons, MS, etc. the world stops for that person. There is a huge silence. Diagnosis changes forever the life of that person as well as every relative and friend of that person. No one is untouched. That diagnosis is ultimately humbling, sometimes enlightening and very often terrifying. Not only the patient, but friends, spouses and relatives of that person are forced to face his/her/their own fear of death. And, they have to deal with grief. How can one heal the body, the mind and psyche? How does one write about something so enormous that it seems often beyond the imagination? In this generative poetry writing intensive, we will look at how other writers like Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Joy Harjo, Meena Alexander, Audre Lorde, Mary Tall Mountain, Carolyn Kizer, Marilyn Hacker, Richard Siken, Anne Sexton, Lucille Clifton, Rainy Dawn Ortiz and others have written about their own diagnoses and dire illnesses. This workshop is open to everyone. Participants will receive writing prompts, will have time to write and share their work with other participants.