WELCOME TO THE HVWC CALENDAR: home of all our upcoming readings, events and workshops. You can view by list or calendar (see right menu to choose). Click the colored tabs below to show only specific options. Our workshops run as multi-session series or one-day “intensives.” Note, we list the multi-session courses on the first day they meet only. The full dates of the session are described in the course descriptions. You would need to scroll back to the start date if you needed to enroll for something already underway. But do let us know if you want to join something in midstream since we need the blessing of the instructor. Questions? Email us.
Workshops – This category encompasses all one-day and multi-week classes, whether in person or via Zoom.
Readings – Our readings are in many different genres and take place in person, on Zoom, or both!
HVWC Recurring Events – This category encompasses such regular favorites as Open Mic, Open Write, and Submission Sunday.
Special Events – These other creative experiences are sure to interest our creative community!
Are YOU There? Approaching the Sacred with Donna Spruijt-Metz (via Zoom)
October 27 @ 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
$130.00
Poets have always called out to whatever they consider holy: God, the Goddess, a higher power, nature, the unfathomable. We reach out with ‘why’ questions, such as ‘Why is this happening?’ or ‘how’ questions, such as ‘How can I keep a good heart in this world?’ We reach out with pleas and supplications, with our innermost secrets and vexations. John Donne, Lucille Clifton, Jericho Brown, Gerald Stern, Li-Young Lee, Alicia Ostriker, Francisco X. Alarcón, Vandana Khanna, among others, call out to the ineffable in their work. These poems can be powerful expressions of joy, sorrow, anger, anguish, confusion, wonder—even curiosity and playfulness—and they offer conversations that are interesting, deep, and deeply personal. What are the available tools and craft techniques that can help us enter such conversations? In this generative workshop, we will reach towards writing in dialogue with whatever you consider holy. The focus will be on poetry, but the skills we exercise in this generative workshop can also enable fiction and nonfiction.
NB: This class will be taught on Zoom ( Sunday, October 27, 12:30-2:30 PM ET) and will be capped at 15 students. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
Donna Spruijt-Metz’s debut poetry collection is ‘General Release from the Beginning of the World’ (2023, Free Verse Editions, Palette Press). She is an emeritus psychology professor, MacDowell fellow, rabbinical school drop-out, and former classical flutist. She was featured as one of ‘5 over 50 debut authors’ in Poets & Writers Magazine (11/23). Her chapbooks include ‘Slippery Surfaces’, ‘And Haunt the World’ (with Flower Conroy). and ‘Dear Ghost’ (winner, 2023 Harbor Review Editor’s prize). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, Tahoma Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is currently a reader for Psaltery & Lyre magazine and co-stewards the national Poetry Grind.