As a visual artist, writing about your own work – whether it’s an artist statement, exhibition placards, or grant proposals – can be a challenge. Ekphrastic poetry (a.k.a. poetry inspired by visual art) can help you think differently about the process. This 3-hour virtual workshop will include time reading and analyzing ekphrastic poems together, followed by a 45min period for drafting ekphrastic writing (it need not be poetry!) in response to a piece of art selected by the student and 45 minutes of sharing and discussion.

About the instructor: A graduate of the Lesley University MFA program in creative writing, Michael Mercurio (Poetry, January 2017) lives and writes in Western Massachusetts. His poems, critical essays, and interviews have been published in Palette Poetry, Sierra (the magazine of the Sierra Club), the Common, Thrush Poetry Journal, Bear Review, Sugar House Review, Lily Poetry Review, The Inflectionist Review, Rust + Moth, Coal Hill Review, and elsewhere. He has taught this workshop for the low-res MFA programs in visual arts at Lesley University and Clark University, and he is a regular instructor for Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop.