Blue Light Press

Blue Light Press offers concurrent On-line Poetry Workshops three times a year, starting in September, January and April. Each workshop meets for eight weeks. If you want the weekly inspiration of a high level poetry workshop as a catalyst for your poems, we have a wonderful group of writers here. We're also open to new members at the beginning of each session. We offer three workshop groups:

1. The Advanced Workshop. I am always amazed by the power and beauty of the poems written by such a fine group of writers. Seed ideas are based on a different theme each session. Workshop groups usually have 6 to 8 members.

2. One-on-One Group: Along with the workshop groups, I offer a one-on-one option for poets who don't have the time to respond to poems in a workshop group. In the one-on-one workshop, you work directly with Diane Frank, Chief Editor of Blue Light Press, without sending your poems to a larger group.

3. The Introductory Workshop for new and re-entry writers. This is a graduate level poetry workshop designed for people who have not written poetry, who want to get back into writing poetry after a hiatus, or have never taken a poetry workshop to learn the skills of writing contemporary poems. The lessons are designed to layer in a new writing skill every week.

"Diane's classes inevitably unleash a torrent of significant creativity." Each week you will receive an inspiring seed idea designed to trigger the creation of a poem, share ideas about the process of writing poetry, workshop one of your poems, and receive feedback from the workshop group. Then, at the end of the week, I will give you a detailed response to your poem – with praise for the places where your poem is lovely and powerful, along with suggestions for revision where the poem has not reached its full potential. My goal is to give you a deeper understanding of poetry, a deeper love of language, and a stronger mastery of the techniques which make a modern poem work. I love being a catalyst to help you take the next step in your writing.

The workshop begins with an introduction called "Writing Poetry - A Life-Affirming Approach." This introduction covers artistic and spiritual ideas about how to write a poem, gives you inspiring quotes from famous poets and writers, and gives you ten practical ideas about how to write poetry that expresses who you are as a human soul. Along with this, you will get an E-mail about a gentle way to workshop poems, a template to offer feedback to other workshop members, and a seed idea to inspire the first poem.

The E-workshop includes two E-mails per week - one with the seed idea for the week, and a second to respond in detail to your poem.

The cost of the workshop is $300 for the eight-week session. To reserve your spot, or for more information or questions, please contact us.