Poetry Manuscript Workshop
Tacey Atsitty
This is a 4-session intensive course that will meet virtually once a week for 2 hours. Each class will consist of discussion from outside-of-class contemporary readings on mapping out the structure/organization from works including Natalie Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poem, John Murillo’s Kontemoporary Amerikan Poetry, and Franny Choi’s Soft Science to name a few. We will discuss the various approaches to creating a manuscript, including the organically grown ones to the very structured and well-planned ones. And, of course, we will be looking closely at a set of your poems (5-10). We will use online tools such as WetInk or Google docs to share and give feedback on each other’s work. This course will be for anyone at any point in their manuscript process, whether they are just starting out or they have a complete manuscript. We will be taking into consideration audience, sequencing, filling in gaps, identifying weaker poems or poems that don’t seem to quite fit the overall arc of the manuscript. On our final session we will discuss next steps for your mss and where, when, and how to send out for publication.
Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné, is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta’neeszahnii (Tangle People). Her maternal grandfather is Tábąąhí (Water Edge People) and her paternal grandfather is Hashk’áánhadzóhí (Yucca Fruit Strung-Out-In-A-Line People) from Cove, AZ.
She is a recipient of the Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, the Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and the Philip Freund Prize. She holds bachelor’s degrees from Brigham Young University and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorse, Literary Hub, New Poets of Native Nations, and other publications. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018).
She is the poetry judge for Eggtooth Editions chapbook contest, director of the Navajo Film Festival, a member of the Board of Directors for Lightscatter Press, a member of the Advisory Council for Brigham Young University’s Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and member of the Advisory Board for the Intermountain All-Women Hoop Dance Competition. She is a PhD student in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University.
She lives in Peru with her husband.
