JCW: Publishing Poetry: Polish Up Your Poems

Have you wondered what your poetry would look like as a book? Do you dream of seeing the cover and spine on a bookshelf? Are you overwhelmed, like many of us are, at the prospect of working on this alone? Develop your manuscript and bio with fellow poets over three months. With the guidance of two experienced poets, achieve the goal of compiling 30 or more of your existing poems into a collection that represents your creative strengths. This series of three workshops is designed to guide you through organizing your work for publication. What better time than now to discover new strengths, and define challenges in an environment that builds confidence? Together, we will take your poetic professional achievements to the next logical step with your existing writing. Registration is required to attend. The cost of the 3 workshop intensive is $75, which includes ongoing consultation over the three month series, resources and actionable takeaways to have a manuscript in hand. Limited in person and virtual/online seats available. Read to the end for requirements, what will be covered and how to claim your spot to close out 2026 ahead of the curve. REQUIREMENTS for EVERY class: · Print outs of at least 30 completed/near-completed poems. (The more the better!) · A laptop or tablet. We will be working with a shared folder and you will be creating a metafile to organize your work. · Time investment in your success: Each workshop starts at 2:00 pm ET and goes until 4:30 pm ET · Homework will be assigned at each session to bring you closer to a final manuscript by the conclusion of the series. WHAT WILL BE COVERED OVER THREE SESSIONS: 10/10 Lesson One: Understand Your Manuscript Potential During this first lesson, you will understand how to identify the themes, topics, and obsessions that define your poetry and use them to form a collection for publication. Build a trusted system to gather, analyze, and categorize your work · Understand the role Obsession and Instinct play in your poetry Discuss the impact of a supportive community of writers · Learn how to start - or expand - a series of poems (with parameters and a theme that connects them) Start categorizing your poems! REQUIREMENTS for EVERY class: · Print outs of at least 30 completed/near-completed poems. (The more the better!) · A laptop or tablet. We will be working with a shared folder and you will be creating a metafile to organize your work. · Time investment in your success: Each workshop starts at 2:00 pm ET and goes until 4:30 pm ET · Homework will be assigned at each session to bring you closer to a final manuscript by the conclusion of the series. 11/14 Lesson Two: Find Your Flow Take a deeper dive into your work and find your flow by using your trusted system to piece your poems together in a cohesive manner. · Create a folder on your laptop for your poetry and learn how to use a metafile to categorize and organize your work Learn what defines a theme, what defines a topic · Decide what is right for you: a chapbook or a full-length collection Workshop the themes, topics, and obsessions in your work REQUIREMENTS for EVERY class: · Print outs of at least 30 completed/near-completed poems. (The more the better!) · A laptop or tablet. We will be working with a shared folder and you will be creating a metafile to organize your work. · Time investment in your success: Each workshop starts at 2:00 pm ET and goes until 4:30 pm ET · Homework will be assigned at each session to bring you closer to a final manuscript by the conclusion of the series. 12/12 Lesson Three: Polish Up Your Poems Now it’s time to take a broader view of your collection and make the final tweaks to get a strong first draft. · What poems stand out? What poems don’t fit? What’s the best order for your poems? What’s a good title for the collection? What are your bonded pairs? Decide on your final titles, table of contents, sections (if any), first/last poems, and notes page · Write an author bio (if you have one, bring a printed copy with you) Meet Duotrope, ChillSubs, and Submittable REQUIREMENTS for EVERY class: · Print outs of at least 30 completed/near-completed poems. (The more the better!) · A laptop or tablet. We will be working with a shared folder and you will be creating a metafile to organize your work. · Time investment in your success: Each workshop starts at 2:00 pm ET and goes until 4:30 pm ET · Homework will be assigned at each session to bring you closer to a final manuscript by the conclusion of the series. Workshop Series Investment · $75 for all three classes or $25 for one session · Payable by the start of the first session, October 10, Venmo: @JerseyCityWriters (verification code 1608) PayPal: [email protected] REQUIREMENTS for EVERY class: · Print outs of at least 30 completed/near-completed poems. (The more the better!) · A laptop or tablet. We will be working with a shared folder and you will be creating a metafile to organize your work. · Time investment in your success: Each workshop starts at 2:00 pm ET and goes until 4:30 pm ET · Homework will be assigned at each session to bring you closer to a final manuscript by the conclusion of the series. Hybrid Online Google Meet link available for participants who live outside of the JC/NYC Metro area or who are unable to attend in-person events due to accessibility limitations. Reach out to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) for questions. Meet the Facilitators Susan Justiniano,\ RESCUEPOETIX™\, is a self-taught, bilingual, published performing poet, playwright, spoken word, recording, and teaching artist. As a professional artist entrepreneur, RescuePoetix is deeply immersed in the Arts throughout the USA and is developing a body of work that engages artists of varied cultures and languages, advocating for artists as professionals. She is twice honored as Poet Laureate: First Puerto Rican woman Poet Laureate of Jersey City, NJ (2020-2022) and State of New Jersey Beat Poet Laureate (2022-2024). Tabitha Dial is a Winner of the Penned Literary Contest (2021) for her poem “Green Soup”. Born in Colorado, she earned an MFA in Poetry from Colorado State University (2009), where she was a part of the poetry editing team for The Colorado Review. Tabitha believes in creating refuge, which she found in Jersey City Writers. She completed the first Poetry Book Boot Camp (2022), which inspired this workshop. Jersey City Writers is honored to present its literary programming at The Writers Loft @ 14C, a shared creative home for artists of all disciplines, including writers of all genres. 14C is more than a venue. It's a community hub where creative people come together to create, share, and grow. As resident artists, Jersey City Writers brings workshops, readings, and performances to a space built on the belief that the arts belong to everyone. To learn more about 14C, please check out: https://arts14c.org/