Tolu’s belief is that craft in poetry is simply a vehicle for the force animating the poet in the moments of writing. Collections of poetry may not overtly demonstrate a protagonist’s journey in the way that narrative structures can make possible in prose. Many poets will however confess that writing certain books brought them on a journey, documented insights from a transformative period, or changed them in significant ways. In this workshop, participants will collaboratively explore how radical honesty, as well as contemplation, acceptance, fearless inquiry can open mystical or metaphysical insights that can transform the writer, and reader.

Repetition often opens up new and unexpected vistas in poetry. It often does this by way of the revelations of word association, the transformation and estrangement from the familiar that come from demanding more of the simple, the mutations of proximity to discordant concepts, as well as illuminating accidents. In this workshop, participants will draft a poem combining at least two forms or devices that will be provided, writing toward weird discovery.

The Road to Publishing Your Debut Poetry Manuscript and Beyond

Tolu had written poetry for 20 years before his first collection was published. For much of that time, he was stumbling in the dark, because information about how he might get a full-length collection published was very hard to come by. He would like to share his lessons from the 2 decades before his debut was published, and from the two years after it was. His bias will be toward traditional publishing. He will cover approaches to the composition of sequences of poetry, chapbooks, research, attributions, constructing a coherent collection, finding an editor / publisher, competitions and prizes, negotiating a contract, negotiating book cover design, promotion and events, and the preservation of much of one’s mental health through it all.