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Juxtaposition and Intersection

A Poetry Workshop with Henrietta Goodman

A poetry workshop that introduces a "simple cure for writer's block" through a series of delightful and surprising prompts. This event is part of the Inland Northwest Poetry Salon.

Both beginning and experienced poets often experience anxiety about finding a subject. This workshop presents a generative strategy that alleviates the feeling of having nothing to write about—a simple cure for writer’s block. Through juxtaposition of objects, words, and situations randomly chosen by workshop participants, each participant develops a freewrite by following the “rules” (put in a giraffe! a beach with rough waves! the word “chronological”! an ill-fitting suit!). Inevitably, during this initial writing process, with the pressure of writing a poem removed, a subject reveals itself—perhaps through an unexpected intersection between two or more of the elements, or perhaps through a productive complication of a pre-existing subject. Participants will write in several rounds and will be invited to share their most exciting lines, images, and ideas.

This poetry workshop is part of the Inland Northwest Poetry Salon.

About the presenter: Henrietta Goodman is the author of four books of poetry: Antillia (University of Nebraska Press, 2024), All That Held Us (BkMk Press, 2018), Hungry Moon (Colorado State University, 2013), and Take What You Want (Alice James Books, 2007). She is co-author (with the poet Ryan Scariano) of a chapbook titled Flicker Noise (Bottlecap Press, 2024. Her poems and essays have been published in The New England Review, New Ohio Review, Terrain, Bennington Review, River Teeth, Cleaver, and more. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Montana Arts Council, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Fishtrap, and other organizations. She teaches in the English department of Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. 

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