It's a Poem! It's Prose! It's Both!: A Generative Prose Poetry Workshop

Hannah Sullivan Brown is leading a prose poetry workshop at the Decatur Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library on Tuesday, October 27, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. It's titled It's a Poem! It's Prose! It's Both!, and the whole thing centers on the prose poem—a form that doesn't follow the usual rules of poetry and offers a different way to approach personal experience. Brown frames the session around Emily Dickinson's own definition of poetry, and from there the group works with prose poems by contemporary writers Richard Siken, Mary Ruefle, and Claudia Rankine. After reading and working with those, you'll use prompts to mine your own memories and observations and generate new work.

Brown comes to the table with an MA in English from Indiana University and an MFA in Poetry from Butler University, where she served as Poetry Editor of Booth magazine. Her recent work has appeared in New Ohio Review, So It Goes, and Sport Literate, and she teaches here in Indianapolis. The session is part of the Butler MFA Community Workshop Series, a free program run by Butler University MFA in Creative Writing alumni and made possible by a gift from the Efroymson Family Fund.

It's an open room, so it works for everyone from new to experienced writers. Pens and notebooks are provided, and the workshop is free. You'll find it at the Decatur Branch, 5301 Kentucky Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46221, on Tuesday, October 27, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.