🌟 Unleash Your Creative Versatility with Larissa Shmailo's Formal Poetry Workshop! 🌟

Are you ready to embark on an extraordinary journey into the world of poetry that beautifully blends tradition with innovation? Look no further! We are thrilled to introduce Larissa Shmailo's highly anticipated Formal Poetry Workshop, where you'll discover the magic of crafting exquisite verses through the lens of structured poetic forms.

🖋️ Why Formal Poetry? Formal poetry, with its meticulously crafted rhyme schemes, meter, and structures, has a timeless allure that has captivated readers for centuries. Larissa Shmailo, a distinguished poet known for her mastery of both traditional and avant-garde styles, invites you to explore the rich tapestry of formal poetry. Whether you're a seasoned poet or just starting your creative journey, this workshop offers an exciting platform to deepen your understanding of poetic traditions while infusing your own unique voice.

🎉 What to Expect: Get ready for an immersive experience that will ignite your creativity and push the boundaries of your poetic expression. Larissa Shmailo's Formal Poetry Workshop is designed to cater to poets of all skill levels, creating an inclusive and dynamic learning environment. Here's a glimpse of what awaits you:

1. Guided Exploration: Larissa will take you on an inspiring voyage through the world of formal poetry, introducing you to a diverse range of forms such as sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, and more. Learn the nuances of each form and how to harness their power to convey emotions, stories, and ideas.

2. 
   

3. Hands-On Workshops: Dive deep into the art of crafting verses with interactive writing sessions. Larissa's expert guidance will help you grasp the intricacies of rhyme, meter, and structure, enabling you to create poems that are both structurally sound and emotionally resonant.

4. 
   

5. Personalized Feedback: Receive valuable feedback on your work from Larissa and fellow participants. This constructive critique will nurture your growth as a poet, providing insights that can elevate your writing to new heights.

6. 
   

7. Celebration of Creativity: Share your newfound creations and celebrate the diversity of voices within the workshop. Explore the ways in which formal poetry can be adapted to reflect contemporary themes and issues, breathing fresh life into a timeless art form.

🔥 Why Larissa Shmailo? Larissa Shmailo is an acclaimed poet, novelist, translator, and critic with an impressive body of work that seamlessly fuses traditional and experimental styles. Her deep appreciation for the craft of poetry and her innovative approach to form make her the perfect guide for your journey into the world of formal poetry.

📆 Mark Your Calendar: 🗓️ Date: Thursdays, November 2, 9, 16, 30 (no meeting on Thanksgiving) 🕒 Time: 7:00 - 8:30 pm 📍 Location:: Zoom link available on registration.

Register: https://www.writingwithlarissa.com/

Fee: $229

🌸 Embrace the power of structured form.

🌸 Elevate your poetic voice.

Join us for Larissa Shmailo's Formal Poetry Workshop and let the art of words transform your world. Get ready to create poetry that resonates through time and leaves an indelible mark on the literary landscape. 📝🎤🖋️

FORMAL POETRY 1

 Make beautiful metric music! Read Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Timothy Steele, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Donne, Robert Frost and many more. Learn the basic meters and write sonnets and villanelles!

 This four-eek workshop is designed for beginners, covering iambs-iambic verse-Petrarchan sonnets-Elizabethan sonnets-villanelles-trochees-trochaic verse-anapests-dactyls. Learn scansion and find a new depth to poetry. Thursdays  September 7, 14, 21, 28, 7:00 - 8:30 pm Eastern. $199; PayPal to larissa_shmailo@yahoo.com.

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/965204021331746

 

AWP 2018 Panel "Semiformal" Accepted!!!!

Delighted to announce that my proposal, "Semiformal: Hybrid Formal Poetry and Free Verse" has been accepted as a panel at the 2018 Association of Writers and Writers Programs Conference in Tampa. Panelists are Timothy Liu, Marc Vincenz, Dean Kostos, Elizabeth Hodges and yours truly.

Here is our program:
Between the polarities of free and formal verse is a spectrum of hybrid poetry that utilizes the  treasures of both: inventiveness, innovative structures, rhyme and rhythm. This panel will present and analyze such hybrid poems, classic and contemporary, including work by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Patricia Smith, and Claudia Rankine. We will "out" free verse poets in their use of formal elements, discovering their metric codes, and discuss the impact of free verse on the evolution of form.

Hope to see you in Tampa!

Medusa's Country now available!!!!!

Medusa's Country is now available at Amazon! Buy Medusa's Country

Coming soon - Medusa's Country

Available soon from MadHat:

Front and Back Cover of Medusa's Country with Blurbs

Here is the full cover, front and back, of my newest poetry collection, Medusa's Country, with blurbs from the brilliant Annie Finch, Dean Kostos, and Lee Ann Brown. The title launches next year at AWP Washington (yep, Washington). Thanks to MadHat Press and its genius publisher and cover artist for Medusa, Marc Vincenz!

"My Dead" on FULCRUM Page

Very pleased that my poem, "My Dead," appears on the popular FULCRUM  Facebook page this weekend.

MY DEAD

My husband lost his shirt at cards; insolvent, he then drowned
in slick Cancun on our honeymoon; years now, it still astounds
how fast, how fast, a living hell can turn a life around.

My godchild told me pointedly if she were to attempt
to die that she'd succeed at once; her word she quickly kept,
and took a hundred opiates and drifted to her death.

My punk-rock pimp, a crush of mine, loved theater and art.
He sodomized and strangled a young man close to his heart,
then packed a bag of bondage toys and left for foreign parts.

Before her death, my mother called and calmly sat me down;
if she could do it all again, she'd have no children, none.
She lived her life in anger and, despite us, all alone.

My father drank and slept around; he was a well-liked guy.
He said I love you once to me the night before he died.
Was there a feeling come too late or panic in his eyes?

Fulcrum

AWP Talk: Endangered Music: Formal Poetry in the 21st Century

IMG_1400.MOV www.dropbox.com Shared with Dropbox

My Dead

My husband lost his shirt at cards; insolvent, he then drowned

in slick Cancun on our honeymoon; years now, it still astounds             

how fast, how fast, a living hell can turn a life around. 

My godchild told me pointedly if she were to attempt

to die that she'd succeed at once; her word she promptly kept,

and took a hundred opiates and drifted to her death.                              
 

My punk rock pimp, a crush of mine, loved theater and art.

He sodomized and strangled a young man who broke his heart.

He packed a bag of bondage toys and left for foreign parts.                  

Before her death, my mother called and calmly sat me down;

if she could do it all again, she'd have no children, none.

She lived her life in anger and, despite us, all alone.       

My father drank and slept around; he was a well-liked guy.                  .

He said I love you once to me the night before he died

Was that a feeling come too late, or panic in his eyes?  

THE MORE YOU LEAVE

The more you leave, the more I want you back;
When you return, our love life seems to lack.
Believing you are unassailable
I yearn for you to be available.
And then you come; I cannot be more bored:
I like your leave, but not your coming toward.
Your distance charms, disarms my eager heart.
But close, I wish we were again apart.
Do stay away, and I'm forever rapt,
But now, you leave me empty, dull, and sapped.
So go away; I'll love you as before.
Love's ebb and flow is tricky as a whore.