Registration Opens Next Week
for 24PearlStreet's Summer Session 2023

Our 24PearlStreet online writing program provides students with the opportunity to work on their craft wherever they are, year-round. Our virtual model combines convenience with the opportunity to work with prize-winning, esteemed faculty and fellow dedicated writers. Stay tuned for details about our early registration discount of 15% off any selected workshop.

The Fine Arts Work Center is committed to making our programs accessible. Our goal is to nurture creative connections that span artistic disciplines, skill levels, backgrounds, generations, abilities, and locations. In next week's announcement, look out for application details regarding 24PearlStreet scholarship opportunities for African American writers, in partnership with Cave Canem.

Sneak Peek of Summer Session Workshops

Hone your skills during a sprint, 1-week, or 4-week workshop led by exciting new faculty Carmen Maria Machado (featured here), Maggie Smith, Melissa Febos, and Oliver de la Paz. Reconnect with beloved returning faculty Dorianne Laux, Allison Joseph, Brendan Constantine, and Chloe Garcia Roberts.

For an intensive 8-week experience, Tupelo Press editor Kristina Marie Darling’s workshop will provide you with crucial strategies and tips on publishing your poetry manuscript.

Featured Work // Oliver de la Paz

How I Learned Bliss

featured in Poetry Foundation

I spied everything. The North Dakota license,

the “Baby on Board” signs, dead raccoons, and deer carcasses.

The Garfields clinging to car windows—the musky traces of old coffee.

I was single-minded in the buzz saw tour I took through

the flatlands of the country to get home. I just wanted to get there.

Never mind the antecedent. I had lost stations miles ago

and was living on cassettes and caffeine. Ahead, brushstrokes

of smoke from annual fires. Only ahead to the last days of summer

and to the dying theme of youth. How pitch-perfect

the tire-on-shoulder sound was to mask the hiss of the tape deck ribbons.

Everything. Perfect. As Wyoming collapses over the car

like a wave. And then another mile marker. Another.

How can I say this more clearly? It was like opening a heavy book,

letting the pages feather themselves and finding a dried flower.