Immerse yourself in the northeast Ohio poetry community and kickstart your poetic creativity with the Literary Cleveland Poetry Summer Camp. A five-week mix of in-person interactive field trips and online group workshop meetings, Poetry Summer Camp is designed to create solidarity, camaraderie, and connection among Northeastern Ohio poets of all experience levels.
Celebrated Cleveland poets Danny Caine and Michelle R. Smith will lead campers on a journey from ekphrasis to the mechanics of small press publishing to everything in between. The month of poetry fun and community will culminate with an open mic showcase at the Lakewood Arts Festival.
Poets of all experience levels are welcome. Each class week will feature: one Saturday in-person interactive field trip, some outside-of-class generative writing time, and one Wednesday evening class meeting via Zoom. Each Wednesday session will feature a mix of work sharing, group discussions, mini craft lessons, best practice sharing, and/or writing sprints.
Saturday Field Trip activities will take place from 1-3 PM at the following locations:
- Saturday July 6, Mac's Backs Books on Coventry
- Saturday July 13, Edgewater Park
- Saturday July 20, Cleveland Museum of Art
- Saturday July 27, Wick Poetry Center
- Saturday August 3, Lakewood Arts Festival Poetry Showcase (time TBD)
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Details: Poetry Summer Camp with Danny Caine and Michelle R. Smith will meet Wednesdays July 3 - March 31 from 6:30-8:30PM via Zoom, and in-person on Saturdays from July 6 - August 3 from 1-3 (not including travel time).
Prerequisites: None
Genre: Poetry
Level: All levels
Format: Generative meetings, discussions, and activities for poets
Location: Wednesdays online via Zoom and Saturdays at various locations
Size: Limited to 50 participants
Suggested Sequence: Follow this class with an intermediate or advanced poetry class
Cancellations & Refunds: Cancel at least 48 hours in advance of the first meeting to receive a full refund. Email info@litcleveland.org.
Work with the best...
Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy's, Flavortown, and Picture Window, as well as the books How to Protect Bookstores and Why and How to Resist Amazon and Why. His poetry has appeared in The Slowdown, LitHub, DIAGRAM, HAD, and Barrelhouse. He's a co-owner of the Raven Book Store, Publishers Weekly's 2022 bookstore of the year.
Michelle R. Smith is a writer, poet, educator, cultural facilitator, and native Clevelander. She is the Programming Director for Literary Cleveland and author of the poetry collections Ariel in Black (2015) and The Vagina Analogues (2020).
This class takes place online via Zoom and at various locations.
Related Classes
Generative Poetry - Feb 2025 (FULL)
Haunting the Obedient Tongue: Hybridity as Anti-Colonial Praxis - Feb 2025
