Introducing Poetic Commons

A year-long poetry reading group

Dear Friends,

Beginning this month, I’ll be hosting Poetic Commons, a free year-long poetry reading group.

Once a month, we’ll gather to discuss a single poetry collection. Rather than evaluating a book’s success, I’m interested in what attentive reading offers us, and in what we gain by making room for different interpretations and points of view. I wanted to create an online space that would support that kind of thoughtful exchange, and I hope you will join me.

The reading list is idiosyncratic by design: these are books I missed in my own reading journey, books I’ve heard spoken about and kept meaning to read, books that shaped me and that I’m eager to revisit. Some are well-known; others are less so. They are an improvised and provisional canon with no attempt at completeness, a list I’m excited to explore with you, lovers and acolytes of poetry.

How It Will Work:

• We’ll meet once a month to discuss a single poetry collection

• Each meeting will be capped at 100 participants

• The group is free and open to anyone who wishes to join

• Participants are encouraged to purchase the book or borrow it from the library. We want to feed the literary ecosystem that feeds us. (If acquiring the book is financially out of reach, please feel free to DM me—I’ll do what I can to help!)

You can sign up for free via Poetic Commons for the first six month of sessions. If you can no longer attend a session, please change your RSVP to open up the spot for someone else.

I’m looking forward to reading with you this year.

xM

Conscious Writers Collective (CWC) is the online home for poets and prose writers who want depth, rigor, and momentum in their creative lives without the cost or rigidity of an MFA program. We bring together exceptional teachers, continuous peer exchange, and an engaged international community to support writers at every stage of their publishing journeys. We are currently open to new members.