Tag Archives: workshop

Revision as a Poet’s Superpower with Tom C. Hunley

Revision as Cooking, Revision as Childrearing, Revision as Midwifing, Revision as a Poet’s Superpower with Tom C. Hunley

A draft of a poem isn’t a broken thing that needs fixed. It’s not a clear, rational argument that needs a little cleaning up, a little editing. It’s a missive from another world that has thus far been only partially-translated.  Or, as writes Philip Metres in “The Art of Losing (and other Visions of Revision),” “Your work is not full of mistakes, and it’s not broken. It’s just not itself yet” (62). Bingo. That bag of flour and that egg? They’re not a bad cake. They haven’t failed you on your birthday. They’re just not a cake yet. A draft is nothing but the ingredients for a poem, lined up and waiting for the skilled chef to go to work. But there’s no definitive recipe, either, because each poem, if it’s good, is a new thing that has never existed yet. It’s a bird, not a birdhouse, as Dean Young tells us in The Art of Recklessness. A poem is something wild and mysterious that is trying to be born, and your arsenal of revision skills may make the difference, for the poem, between living and dying. Please note – This is a revision workshop, so please bring a draft of a poem.

Tom C. Hunley is the author of eight full-length poetry collections, eight chapbooks, two textbooks, and two produced films. He and his wife of twenty-nine years have four amazing kids. Right or wrong, he believes he has impeccable taste when it comes to literature, film, music, and the one woman who has his whole heart. He seriously lacks inner resources, and he’s almost certain that his liver is diseased. He despises generative AI, groupthink, the tortured language of propaganda, big government, and bloated bureaucracies, especially in universities. He has published poems in journals with names beginning with every letter of the alphabet, from Atlanta Review to Zone 3. He is currently working on a novel and a memoir-in-flash.

Online

$40

Tuesday, May 12, 6-8pm EST

Katerina Stoykova to Teach at Tupelo Quarterly

Accents Publishing founder and senior editor Katerina Stoykova will teach a three-hour workshop at Tupelo Quarterly as part of their Spring Series Workshops. More info here.

Workshop Description

You have accumulated a stack of poems, so what’s next? How do you go about arranging your material into a book? Should you work towards a chapbook or a full-length collection? What could be a manageable, non intimidating place to get started? What is the best way to organize the work? Should you break it into sections or shape it into one continuous flow? How can you recognize a good title for a collection? What are the main architectural elements of a book? How to keep sane and motivated throughout all this? Poet/Editor/Publisher Katerina Stoykova will discuss best practices on these and give tips to keep the process manageable and fun.

Meet Your Instructor

A Bulgarian by birth, Katerina Stoykova is a bilingual poet living in Kentucky and is the author of Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House (University Press of Kentucky, 2024) and The Poet’s Guide to Publishing: How to Conceive, Arrange, Edit, Publish and Market a Book of Poetry (McFarland, 2024). Katerina is the founder and senior editor of Accents Publishing, as well as the creator of the Accents podcast on WUKY. Katerina serves as the 2025-2026 President of the Kentucky State Poetry Society. 

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The News from Poetry with Leatha Kendrick

Taking a workshop with Leatha Kendrick is a right of passage! Not only that, but also the news is begging to be written about.

Hope to see you to this two-hour workshop, brought to you by Accents Publishing and the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning!

The News from Poetry

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

–William Carlos Williams
“Asphodel that Greeny Flower”

Poetry is news that stays new, Ezra Pound said. What is it of our own lives that will stay new? How do we give voice to this moment in time? It is not so much the what as it is the how of our poems—the line and its mystery, our images and diction, the unexpected metaphor—that cause poems to remain fresh.

In this session, we will consider how poems convey both the timely and the timeless. Using prompts we will explore how we might craft poems that stay new, poems to surprise a future reader with a sense of our particular time.

Leatha Kendrick’s poetry, essays, and articles appear in journals and anthologies, including the Red Branch Review, Good River Review, Kansas City Review, Appalachian Journal, the Anthology of Appalachian Writers (Volume XVII); The Southern Poetry Anthology (Volume 3); and What Comes Down to Us – Twenty-Five Contemporary Kentucky Poets. In 2025, Kendrick was awarded the 10th annual Judy Gaines Young Award by Transylvania University, “recognizing exceptional works of Appalachian writers.” And Luckier, from Accents Publishing (2020), is her fifth collection of poems.

The News from Poetry with Leatha Kendrick
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/e3E_3SzCQjuTcMzzGUIUlA
https://bit.ly/news_poetry
Thursday, April 9, 6-8pm
Online
$40

What’s Line Got to Do With It? Poetic Technique Beyond Lineation with Jay McCoy

Hey Poets! You don’t want to miss this Accents Craft Original session with Jay McCoy!
https://bit.ly/beyond_lineation
Thurs, March 12, 6-8pm
Online
$40

In this workshop, participants will explore poetic devices beyond the lineation toolkit or completely outside of it. While we will focus on writing the prose poem, we will touch on haibun, monostich, concrete, and various types of erasure work as well. The workshop will conclude with timed prompts for participants to try out the discussed techniques with an opportunity to share.

Jay McCoy is the author of The Occupation (Accents Publishing). Born and raised in eastern Kentucky, he now lives in Lexington. Jay is the Director of the Kentucky Book Festival and an adjunct professor at EKU and BCTC teaching first year writing, creative writing, and Appalachian studies. He co-founded the Teen Howl Poetry Series and is co-host of the Kentucky Writers Roundtable on RadioLex.

Ekphrastic Writing with B. Elizabeth Beck

Accents Publishing in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning is proud to offer Ekphrastic Writing: How to Never Face a Blank Page Again with B Elizabeth Beck

This workshop will detail the ekphrastic process and provide prompts that will serve you whenever you face the blank page. Elizabeth will guide you to respond to visual and musical prompts, based upon Painted Daydreams: Collection of Ekphrastic Poems, Dancing on the Page, and Swan Songs. A fun, engaging workshop that celebrates all forms of art.

B. Elizabeth Beck is the author of five collections of poetry, including Mama Tried (Broadstone Books), winner of the American Book Fest Prize for Poetry. She is the author of the Summer Tour Trilogy. Under the Elm placed as finalist for the Book Excellence Awards. Swan Songs is her debut collection of short stories. She was a finalist in the Kentucky State Poetry Society Grand Prix Prize and has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize. Elizabeth is a recipient of The Kentucky Foundation for Women grant. Her work appears in journals and anthologies, including Poetica Magazine, Appalachian Review, Limestone Blue, and Harvard Education Press. Elizabeth founded two poetry series, Teen Howl and Poetry at the/ˈtā-bəl/ in Lexington, Kentucky. For more information about Elizabeth: www.elizbeck.com

Thursday, January 22, 6-8pm
Online
$40

Register at https://bit.ly/Ekphrastic_Writing