Would you like to bring imagination, fantasy, speculation, or science fiction elements to your poetry writing? The imaginal realm offers unique opportunities for emotional truth, daring, experimental perspectives, and pure artistic pleasure. Sometimes, poets combine down-to-earth images and everyday scenes with conjured realities; other times, they build entirely new, wholly imagined worlds.

In this six-week class, we will engage in poetry-writing exercises inspired by the diverse persona narrators used by poets like Charles Simic, the Beowulf poet, Louise Glück, Ishmael Reed, Jean de La Fontaine, and Joy Harjo, to name a few. Together, we will use these voices to create accessible, yet artistically challenging and satisfying work.

Class Structure & Details

•Format: Weekly, unrecorded live classes via Google Meet

•What to Expect: During the weekly, two-hour class, we will discuss the mechanics of poetry-writing, share our work, offer supportive feedback, and introduce the upcoming week’s exercise.

•Who Can Join: All are welcome! This class is open to new, current, and returning Writers Studio students.

•What You Need: A computer or tablet with an internet connection. A link to our online classroom is emailed to you after you register, and tech support is available throughout the class.

📌 Note: Our Google Meet sessions are highly interactive and designed to be a safe space for sharing fresh work, so they are not recorded.

Placement Note: Students who have taken three or more terms of a six-week class are eligible for Level 2 or an Intermediate class.

Instructor(s)

Writers Studio Teacher

Lisa Bellamy

Lisa Bellamy is the author of Wonder Body (Fernwood Press imprint / Barclay Press, forthcoming 2027) and The Northway, full-length poetry collections (Terrapin Books). Bee Frequency, a chapbook, is forthcoming in 2026 (Black Sunflowers Poetry Press). Her chapbook Nectar won The Aurorean’s poetry chapbook contest. Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, The Sun, Massachusetts Review, New Ohio Review, The Southern Review, Sho, Allium, Verse Daily, Hotel Amerika, Salamander, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Chautauqua, Kestrel, Gyroscope Review, The Southampton Review, Calyx, Cimarron Review, Tiferet, Anglican Theological Review, PANK, Christian Century, Unbroken, The Branches Journal, Thimble, Jackdaw Review, and Literary Field Guide to Northern Appalachia, among other publications. She has received two Pushcart Prizes, a Fugue Poetry Prize, honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and has been featured in podcasts, including The Writer’s Almanac. The U.N. Network on Migration featured her poem “Yoho” in its 2022 multi-media exhibition. She is a graduate of Princeton University.

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