Writing in Persona: Language, Lipstick, and a Mirror
Please note the following schedule updates not shown in the printed catalogue:
New start date: 2/11
New skip date: 2/18
New end date: 2/25
To step into another’s shoes and assume their persona—someone famous, a mythical or fictional character, even an animal, friend or family member—is a way to generate new and exciting poems. We will examine powerful dramatic dialogue and persona poems, generate and share new persona poems and discuss what it means to assume another’s identity. Students can expect to come away with two new poems, plus the knowledge and joy of how to craft a successful persona poem.
Registration dates:
December 5: Scholarship Donation Day (Learn more.)
December 6: Member registration opens
December 13: General registration opens
Heidi Seaborn
Heidi Seaborn thought she’d grow up to be a writer. And eventually, she did. But first, she had a long global business career, raised three children, divorced, remarried, and then finally, in her late 50’s took a class at the Hugo House that helped launch her second act as a poet, essayist, and editor. Since 2016, Heidi’s authored two full-length collections of poetry, including PANK Books 2020 Poetry Award winner An Insomniac’s Slumber Party with Marilyn Monroe (2021), Give a Girl Chaos (C&R Press, 2019), and three chapbooks of poetry including the 2020 Comstock Review Prize Chapbook, Bite Marks (2021), as well as Finding My Way Home (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and Once a Diva (dancing girl press, 2021), as well as a poetic political pamphlet Body Politic (Mount Analogue Press, 2017). She’s won or been shortlisted for over two dozen awards. Her poetry and essays have recently appeared in American Poetry Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Best American Poetry, Brevity, Copper Nickel, The Cortland Review, The Financial Times, The Greensboro Review, The Missouri Review, The Slowdown, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is Executive Editor of The Adroit Journal and holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU and a BA from Stanford University. After living all over the world, she now resides in her hometown of Seattle.