To-do lists, wish lists, bucket lists, playlists, reading lists, shopping lists, guest lists, top-ten lists. We all write them or use them. While the list is a recognizable and practical tool in everyday life, it can also be a powerful—and fun—poetic form.
The list poem, or catalog poem, has been written by poets from Homer and Walt Whitman to Danez Smith and Danusha Laméris.
This four-week asynchronous online workshop, which includes an optional weekly Zoom office hour, will give you a chance to examine an assortment of modern and contemporary list poems, analyze their characteristic elements, and generate your own.
Scroll to "Course Content" for more information and a preview of the first week's lesson!
Teaching Artist: Jo Pitkin
Dates: Monday, July 6-Sunday, August 2, with access for an additional 30 days
Format: Asynchronous with optional weekly Zoom office hours at a time to be determined with cohort. (Zoom sessions will be recorded for those who are uable to attend live.)
Your teaching artist
MFA, Writers' Workshop, University of Iowa
Jo Pitkin is a native of the Hudson Valley. She earned a BA in Creative Writing and Literature from Kirkland College—one of the first undergraduate creative writing degrees in the United States—and an MFA in Poetry from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is the author of a chapbook, The Measure (Finishing Line Press, 2007), and four full-length books—Cradle of the American Circus: Poems from Somers, New York (The History Press, 2012); Commonplace Invasions (Salmon Poetry, 2014); Rendering (Salmon Poetry, 2017); and Village: Recession (Finishing Line Press, 2026). She is also the editor of the anthology Lost Orchard: Prose and Poetry from the Kirkland College Community (SUNY Press, 2014).
Guided cohort • Flexible pacing • Write in community
Sneak peek in Week One!
Receive guided prompts, craft explorations, and generative exercises released over time to support an unfolding creative process. Labs combine flexible, mostly asynchronous participation with the energy and accountability of writing alongside others.
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
