I’m a poet, Editor of Publishers Weekly, and founder of Conscious Writers Collective, an online writing community and platform designed around the belief that rigorous writing instruction, a dedicated community of writers, and opportunities to learn from visiting experts should not be exclusive to an MFA.
CWC members meet 5x/month for live sessions taught by me, publishing experts, and some of the best writers around. Writers receive regular feedback from each other and community experts, and I also lead a monthly workshop. The platform gives you access to 70+ hours of past courses members can watch at their own pace. CWC membership is quarterly ($299/three months) or yearly ($999)—the value is unparalleled and the price unmatched by any other online program.
We have nearly 200 writers from all over the world in our community. Many Substack writers can attest to the program’s literary life-changing benefits.
Why I started this newsletter (for me and for you):
This newsletter is for everyone: poets and non-poets, readers and non-readers. If you’re human, if you sometimes feel bewildered, overwhelmed, ecstatic, uneasy, contented, alert, uneasy—then yours is the mind I wish to invite into the small, crystalline feeling-world of poetry.
Poetry Today is where I reflect on my great passion for poetry, wonder, and mindset, with a nice helping of apocryphal and weird literary stuff sprinkled in (see: Emily Dickinson’s gingerbread recipe). Part of my mission is to debunk the notion that academic research is inaccessible or riddled with jargon, or that poetry is “hard.” I share tidbits of my PhD on the role of wonder and excerpts of essays and reviews I’m writing for Poetry and elsewhere in an accessible way—otherwise, truly, what is the point.
Each Friday, I curate Poems for Your Weekend (PoetryRx), a round up of poems based on a particular situation or condition. For example, “Poems to treat the winter blues.”
I guarantee that there’s a poem waiting to speak to OR be written by you. I want to help you find each other.
Who am I?
I’m Maya C. Popa, a Romanian-American writer, editor, and teacher based in NYC.
I’m the author of two collections of poetry, Wound is the Origin of Wonder and American Faith, and the Poetry Editor of Publishers Weekly. I teach poetry at NYU.
I’m also the founder of the Conscious Writers Collective for dedicated writers looking for an alternative to an MFA program, or for post-MFA students seeking a bridge into the rest of their writing lives. It’s the place for writers ready to hit unsubscribe on drama and embrace growth through 5+ group meetings a month with me, and regular sessions with visiting writers and publishing professionals.
I also offer replays of past courses.
Read Me
My most recent collection is Wound is the Origin of Wonder from W. W. Norton.
Here are some lovely things writers I admire have said about it…
