Forms & Features with Charlene Pierce

How close can a reader feel to the speaker in a poem—and what shifts when that distance changes? In this generative workshop, we’ll play with psychic distance—the emotional and cognitive proximity between speaker and reader—as a way to create intimacy, detachment, tension, and revelation.

Guided by excerpts from Franny Choi’s work, we’ll pull apart lines, shift syntax, break and rebuild patterns of repetition, and experiment with imagery to discover how each move changes the poem’s emotional resonance. Along the way, we’ll notice how structure and language shape pacing, and how small choices can tilt the reader toward or away from the emotional core of the poem.

Come ready to write, to stretch your narrative voice, and to test just how far—or how near—you want to bring your reader. 

This workshop is for participants aged 18 and older, of all backgrounds and experiences with reading and writing poetry.