Unleash Your Inner Writer and Reclaim Your Resilience: Join the Writing Resilience Workshop!

 Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey towards healing and self-discovery? Do you have a story to tell but have been held back by trauma, addiction, or mental illness? If so, the Writing Resilience Workshop is here to guide you on a path of recovery, creativity, and personal growth.

Unlock Your Potential Through the Power of Words

Writing has the incredible ability to heal wounds, provide clarity, and empower us to overcome life's toughest challenges. The Writing Resilience Workshop is a four-week virtual gathering on Zoom that aims to harness the therapeutic power of writing to help individuals affected by trauma, addiction, and mental illness. Our goal is simple yet profound: to increase coping skills, enhance resilience, and inspire participants to embrace their unique voices through the art of writing.

What to Expect at the Writing Resilience Workshop

Our workshop is designed to provide a safe and supportive environment for participants to explore their emotions, experiences, and aspirations. Here's what you can expect during our four-week journey together:

1. Creative Writing Exercises: Each week, you'll engage in various writing exercises carefully crafted to help you express your thoughts and feelings. Whether you're interested in memoirs, novels, poetry, or flash fiction, these exercises will ignite your creativity and unlock your storytelling potential.

2. Group Discussions: Share your work and thoughts with a compassionate and understanding community. Our workshop is a space free from judgment, where you can connect with others who have faced similar challenges.

3. Personalized Feedback: Receive constructive feedback and guidance from experienced writing instructors who are passionate about helping you grow as a writer.

4. The Writing Resilience Workbook: As part of the workshop, you'll receive a copy of the Writing Resilience Workbook. This invaluable resource is filled with prompts, exercises, and tools to support your writing journey and enhance your resilience.

5. Building Resilience: Discover how writing can be a powerful tool for building resilience and self-empowerment. Learn techniques to navigate life's obstacles with greater ease and strength.

6. Crafting Your Story: Whether you want to write a memoir, a novel, poetry, or a collection of flash fiction, our workshop will guide you in shaping your narrative and finding your unique voice.

7. Support and Community: Connect with like-minded individuals who understand the challenges you face and can offer encouragement and support as you progress on your writing and healing journey.

Join Us and Rediscover Your Strength

The Writing Resilience Workshop is not just about writing; it's about reclaiming your resilience, finding your voice, and embarking on a journey of self-discovery and healing. No matter where you are on your writing journey or how daunting life's challenges may seem, we believe in your potential to overcome and thrive.

Workshop Details:

• Duration: Four weeks
• Platform: Zoom (convenient and accessible from anywhere)
• Dates: Sundays. October 6, 13, 20, 27, 4:00 - 6:00 pm ET
• Fee: $199. PayPal larissa_shmailo@yahoo.com or Venmo @Larissa-Shmailo
• Register: https://www.writingwithlarissa.com/
• Don't miss this opportunity to unlock your inner writer and embark on a transformative journey towards resilience and healing. Space is limited, so secure your spot in the Writing Resilience Workshop today! To register or learn more, please visit WritingwithLarissa.com

If you're ready to take the first step towards a brighter, more resilient future, join us at the Writing Resilience Workshop. Together, we'll write our way to healing, strength, and empowerment. Your story matters, and we can't wait to help you tell it.

Larissa Shmailo Author of the Writing Resilience Workbook

 🌟 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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 📝🎤🖋️

Writing Resilience in May

 Writing Resilience is a 4-week Zoom writing workshop for people who have been affected by trauma, addiction, and/or mental illness. We will write our stories to empower ourselves and increase coping and resilience, as well as to work toward writing a memoir, poetry collection, or novel. Join the workshop that has been called "life changing" "useful and motivating" and "generated a lot of good work." The workshop meets Saturdays, May 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Eastern. $169 for all four sessions. PayPal larissa_shmailo@yahoo.com

“Larissa Shmailo is astute, discerning, and perceptive . . . Larissa brings to the workshop the rare capacity of true interest in the work and the lives of her students. She affirms the writing in a way that demonstrates understanding of the content - through specificity and authentic reaction to the piece. This class allows the processing of personal trauma while also freeing it in the direction of publication. One is left realizing that the world does want to hear your story.” -—Sandra Kleven, publisher, Cirque

"Larissa Shmailo's Writing Resilience Workshop helped me to write again after a period of writer's block. In the past I have not been able to write in response to prompts, or to write in-workshop, but something about Larissa's leadership and compassion—along with the warmth of the group—freed me to participate. I am grateful for the experience and highly recommend the workshop." —Rachel Blum, author of The Doctor of Flowers

"Larissa Shmailo is a true warrior of the written/spoken word, as her life and work ignites her. What an honor to be one of her students! Her class is generative and I produced some pieces that were published quickly. We did in-class exercises and read our work aloud. Got excellent feedback from her, as well as the other students. If you get a chance to take Shmailo’s class, jump on it. She is a gift to the writing community. WOW!"—Meg Tuite, author of five short story collections, two poetry collections, and published in numerous literary magazines, as well as anthologies.

“This course created the space and structure in my life to make writing a regular part of my day. Larissa’s excellent exercises and insightful feedback served as the basis for rich class discussions and workshops. I felt connected to my classmates and found myself feeling at home among them— a rare treasure for such a compact time frame and over Zoom. I would highly recommend this course to any writer who wants to get back on track but is struggling to enact this desire day to day.” — Anna Fridlis, writing instructor, Parsons School of Design 

Dora / Lora Now Available

Dora / Lora, the new book of poetry by Larissa Shmailo, is now available at https://www.unlikelystories.org/unlikely-books/dora-lora ! Dora / Lora is a harrowing account of the Ukrainian holodomor (mass starvation of the 1930s) and the role of Ukrainian collaborators in the Nazi death camps seen through the lens of one family's experience. Intergenerational Holocaust trauma is agonizingly depicted (suppose your parents joined the wrong side?). The political is personal in this gripping collection. Buy the paperback or Ebook today.

Dora/Lora is an audacious and brutally honest book by one of the most honest and fearless voices on the American literary scene. It takes unimaginable courage to even try to comprehend the incomprehensible – let alone to write about it now, of all times. Larissa Shmailo’s prose, as “unadorned and unperfumed” as the utterings of a Sybil, heroically strives to connect vantage points, which, like dead stars, are impossible to connect with any finality. Her unyielding poetry, crisp, laconic, and masterful, refuses to remain trapped and wrapped in itself. The book opens a gate to compassion and, hence, if not to forgiveness, then to freedom.

—Irina Mashinski, author of The Naked World

“The alphabet sings only / to me,” confides Larissa Shmailo; elsewhere she writes, “I AM YOUR LOGOS, THE WORD MADE FLESH.” Shmailo is an alchemist of words, manipulating rhyme and cadence and all the tricks of form in her quest to produce gold. Whether she’s channeling Anna Karenina in the #me, too era, voicing Icarus’s post-mortem report, or exploring her own family connections to kapos and crematoria, Shmailo’s Dora/Lora explicitly confronts the question of how one can write poetry after Auschwitz. Astonishing, confounding, and deeply moving: in these poems, Shmailo conjures gold from the unlikeliest of substances.

—Katherine E. Young, poet laureate emerita, Arlington, VA

In Dora/Lora, Larissa once again pushes the boundaries of poetry, offering surprises in the pause between comedy and heartbreak.

—Elizabeth L. Hodges, author of Witchery

"This rupture of heart, love’s sharp scalpel will cut mine apart.” With torture, starvation, beatings, and disfigurement, what has changed? Shmailo follows what her father told her, “‘Keep breathing,’ he encouraged me in difficult times! ‘Keep breathing.’” As you read this bravely written book, “keep breathing.”

—Gloria Mindock, editor of Červená Barva Press

REVIEW OF ERICA JONG'S THE WORLD BEGAN WITH YES

Congratulations to Erica Jong for being included in the Washington Post's list of 100 most important books for Fear of Flying. My review of her poetry collection The World Began with Yes appears in the July 2019 North of Oxford 
 https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2019/07/01/the-world-began-with-yes-by-erica-jong/

AMERICAN AND IRANIAN POETS DO NOT WANT WAR!

I am proud to be translated in Farsi by Iranian poets Mohammad Mostaghimi and Mersad Mostaghimi - poets do not want war! A translation of a SLY BANG poem, Vow:
Vow
We will love like dogwood
Kiss like cranes
Die like moths
I promise

©2007, Larissa Shmailo

لاريسا شمايلو 2007

پيمان بهار

ما عشق خواهيم ورزيد

مثل زغال اخته

بوسه خواهيم زد

مثل درناها

خواهيم مرد

مثل پروانگان

من نويد مي‌دهم

گزاشتار: محمّد مستقيمي(راهي)

&

My love, I see myself in a fur coat lying face down, drunk,

on the floor of the subway train, one heel lost, & I feel a

hardened man raping me, my virgin soul frost, & awards

are easy, mama says, & they may pick and choose you, but,

they don’t know you, Ms. Boss, & my father says that I am

sexy & the time after that is lost & I know I am fat,

that I cost, & before she dies, mama says she wishes

I was never born, my death in my mother’s eyes, crossed,

but my love, see this chasm & wall here & be brave for me,

come swim the swamp around me & trust it is not within me,

or if it is, come love this swamp creature until it is drained,

and look at the dead in the moat, for here they will remain,

& sit here, still, with me & I will haltingly explain

I still love, beyond scars, beyond wounds, beyond pain

In-depth Interview about My #METOO Poem "&"

An in-depth interview about the emotional and creative process leading up to my poem, "&" which appeared in a recent edition of SHREW guest edited by Michael T. Young. Thanks to Christal Cooper for this kind write-up.

READ FULL INTERVIEW HERE

About this website

CHRISRICECOOPER.BLOGSPOT.COM

#55 Backstory of the Poem "&" by Larissa Shmailo

Chris Rice Cooper caccoop@aol.com https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7 *The images in this specific piece are granted...

In memoriam Irene Tara Shanahan Sargent

In memoriam Irene Tara Shanahan Sargent
my niece and godchild
March 28, 1969 - October 20, 2003

A poem I wrote on the plane to her funeral:

Aerial View of the Rockies

The gods like to trace their fingers in the world;
like leaves from a primordial tree, landforms
bare their veins. Clever of her to suicide this way
leaving no one but me to know. Impassive as
the dead face she wanted no one to see, clouds
hide rigor in the lines, purposeful or not, below.
In winter, sunrise looks like sunset in this distant
land, soon to be nearer, nearer, soon.

5 Poems up at Dispatches from the Poetry Wars

SCHOOLING

for Alexander Skidan

The motions of children

of courts

Carlight

industrial prolegomena

Eradicated Ovids

fast loose change

Rivers of tar, of cars, of tattered water

leave the driving to us

“I love you.”

“Don’t talk to me that way.”

Resistance is futile

Under the spreading chestnut tree

God’s joke

Come to me

my mitochondrial baby

I sing a song of mouse elf

Heidegger, Heidegger everywhere

and not a stop to think

Resistance is utile

In the conifer stands, Artemis’s breath

she doesn’t work here any more

Fuck utopia:

More burnings

Resistance is a drink

for those who think,

a meal for those who feel

Jumping off premises

the white cliffs are over

Tolstoy: “Turgenev

can-can; boring.”

Dig a whole

for decapitated Anna

The peasant become

proletarian, iron clad

then fat.

Did I arouse you, America?

Good. Coke is life.

Your jeans become genes

the eugenics

Not to interrupt the show, but

do you still know

how to pleasure yourself?

SPECTACLE IS THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF FASCIST ART

Come, hide with me from

their violence in the vi-

olets. They’re soon gone.

AMERICAN LIFE

mama

soma

chemo

coma

SET OF EXAMPLES AND NONEXAMPLES

1. 2. 3. . . . ∏=P. Place your value, place your bets, find a
reasonable answer: The probability experiment begins. Here
you, like a lost abscissa, start, an upstart fractal, an enclosed

polygon with an infinite perimeter. Heads or tails, + plusses, you
seek congruency in your scalene life, with no order of operations.
There is missing information, or too much information; too many

variables to solve the equation. Try a new calculus, and measure
your dimensions. In the probability experiment, the outcome "yes"
is unlikely, the expression P = ?, even simplified, irrational; perhaps,

you wonder, the set is null? No: embrace me, acutely, and my non-
linear charms, and fall, meters squared, to my alge(bra) arms.

PARTS OF A FLOWER

Q. Anthrax pustule stigma style:

your gaps                   pedaling, stab

your brazen face.

  you were made

for manhandling

torn from

the erg and

reduced to buttons

A. I’m the child of manure, a clod

one of many accidents

                        along the highway.

Like you, I’m a wino creep

stepped upon______ stamped on

pissed on by the Gogs

I can still see the

hell of us and  chain your food.

POEMS AT DISPATCHES