[ poetry ]

Beyond Narcissism: Poetry as an Act of Care, with Mace Dent Johnson

  • 4 weeks long = $320 total / person

  • meets mondays from 6-8pm Eastern time

  • virtual (Zoom + Google Docs)

Writers of all stripes are constantly asking how we can make our work both more personal and more political, more relevant to the world and its ills. We wonder about the relationship between our own pain and that of others. We wonder if our writing can address both; if poetry can really inspire social change. 

This workshop will engage poetry as a tool for escaping artistic narcissism, questioning notions of selfhood premised on consumption, scarcity, and self/other binaries. Instead of leaning into the self, participants will write poetry that expands the concept of self-care to encompass care for loved ones and communities – even enemies. In this way, the workshop will foreground poetry as a language of social justice. 

Together, we will ask questions like: How can poetry be an act of care towards our communities? How do we write poems that honor our ancestors and beloveds? How can a poem erode the culture of indifference around pain and suffering? Can a poem inspire a new mode of living? And how do we write with more accuracy and empathy? What are the ethics of writing a poem about someone else? 

The forms we explore in this course will be concrete and situational; for example, we might learn how to write letter poems that pin down aggressors and take power to account, or list poems that incorporate current events, or ode poems about favorite foods that trace their political history. 

This workshop will welcome a professional at the intersection of mental health and social justice as guest facilitator in at least one session. Announcement forthcoming.

  • Mace Dent Johnson is currently the Senior Poetry Fellow in the Creative Writing program at Washington University in Saint Louis, where they completed an MFA in Poetry. Their poetry draws on the natural world, social theory, personal narrative, etymology, and popular culture. They also have interest and experience in academic writing, playwriting, and lyric essay. They approach writing and editing with a focus on balance, variety, syntax, and the natural, conversational, and musical flow of language.

    Mace grew up in Columbus, Georgia and went to Harvard College, where they studied History and Literature. As an undergraduate, Mace was a Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow, and they completed extensive research and academic writing training and execution. They received highest honors for their undergraduate thesis and were chosen for a fellowship at the Schomburg Center in Harlem.

    In their MFA, Mace completed a full-length poetry manuscript, receiving a senior fellowship after graduation. Mace is a Cave Canem Poetry Fellow, and they have published prose and poetry online and in print, appearing in the Nepantla Anthology, The New Republic, and them. magazine, among others.

  • Coming soon!