Marge Piercy Intensive Poetry Workshop in
Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Monday thru Friday, June 18 - 22, 2012


Submissions for the June 18 -22, 2012 Workshop are now being accepted.

Marge Piercy is one of America’s preeminent poets. She has published eighteen highly regarded volumes of poetry, including the first of her selected poems, CIRCLES ON THE WATER, now in its 15 th printing; THE MOON IS ALWAYS FEMALE, MY MOTHER’S BODY, WHAT ARE BIG GIRLS MADE OF, THE CROOKED INHERITANCE and earlier this year, THE HUNGER MOON: New & Selected Poems 1980-2010. All of these volumes were published by Knopf and are still in print. She has also written 17 novels, most recently SEX WARS, a memoir SLEEPING WITH CATS and two nonfictions books, as well as one play.

She gives readings, workshops and speeches at colleges, festivals, writers and other themed conferences and retreat centers all over the country and has taken part in events at more than 400 venues here and abroad. Her work has been translated into 19 languages.

For over thirty years Marge has lived in Wellfleet, a small but celebrated fishing village on Outer Cape Cod, year-round home of many artists and writers, summer retreat for some of the most famous names in American literature. The irony of leaving one very special place to teach in another ( Aspen, Boulder, Esalen, etc.) has never been lost on Marge, and for some time it had been her desire to try something completely different: an intensive poetry workshop of her own design and held in her own home town. Each of the last two years, she has selected the best 12 poets out of many submissions. Participants have traveled to Wellfleet from as far as California, Oregon, Alabama, Georgia, England, Switzerland and Australia.

With a limited size class of twelve serious students, daily group sessions are held in a comfortable, climate-controlled facility just outside the village, while individual, one-on-one student conferences take place in the gazebo at Marge’s hillside home among the gardens. The five day week includes a luncheon together, a cocktail party, and a poetry reading open to the public where the entire class reads with Marge to a sizable audience. Weather permitting, we host a bonfire on the beach for workshop participants, their families, partners, and friends. We want the experience to be a welcoming and friendly one as well as moving the participants to a higher level of skill. A private social network on Ning will be set up before the class in order to begin the process of building a sense of community among participants.
 
This is a week to work with a master teacher and hone your craft with emphasis on imagery, oral aspects, line lengths and line breaks, and the uses of persona. Writing exercises are assigned to improve specific areas of technique. We also work on delivery throughout the workshop, since readings are the point of sale for most poetry books.
 
Participants will be selected on the basis of 5 poems [limit 7 pages]  submitted via email to hagolem@c4.net. Please place Piercy Poetry Intensive in the subject line. Place your poems in the body of the email or as an MS WORD attachment in one file. (Unfortunately some submissions have been trapped by a spam catcher, so if you don't receive a response to your submission, please try again.)

If accepted, a non-refundable deposit of $200 is required against the full tuition but will be returned should the class be cancelled. Once accepted, on May 1, you will be asked to send 10 additional  poems to form the basis with your original five for your conference with Marge. At that time the remainder of the $450 tuition is due, that is, an additional $250 to your original payment.

You are responsible for food and lodging, but we help you find accommodations that suit your needs and budget. Frequently participants bring friends or family along so they may enjoy Wellfleet.

The class is open to serious female and male poets. If you're interested in applying please send five poems--in one file, limit seven pages--to hagolem@c4.net. Please place Piercy Poetry Intensive in the subject line.

(If possible, please format to MS-Word .doc or send all poems in the body of the e-mail.) Upon acceptance to the workshop, you'll receive additional information and be asked for your deposit.

Some comments from 2011:

"Can't thank you enough for such an excellent experience in all ways.  In five days I learned more from you than I have in all the other writer's workshops I've ever attended, including the Iowa Writer's Workshop.   What an outstanding experience."
--A Participant from Cape Ann, Massachusetts

"I am still processing the wealth of self and practical knowledge gathered last week.  I loved being exposed to other writers in the form of example.  In addition, everything you both did to personalize the week for us, the bonfire, the reading, the garden party, opening your home to us.  It was special and genuine."
--A Participant from Western Massachusetts

"The reading boosted my confidence in my writing and I was impressed with how well we all sounded. Marge's poems sang about so much that is important and needed. To read with her was a highlight of the week. You showed me how much deeper I need to go, how much richer I can make my poems. But you did this by affirming what I was doing well, by honoring my poems (and those of everyone in the workshop). I will continue to use as guides the packets of poems you gave us for each lesson: line breaks, stanzas, titles, pattern poems, line lengths, oral element, and imagery... I am in awe of your beautiful garden and thank you for one of the best parties we have ever attended.” --A Participant from Ann Arbor, Michigan

Some comments from 2010:

"It's one week after the workshop ended and I feel like the sound is still buzzing in my ear, like after you leave a concert and you can still hear the music afterwards. You have taught me so much: About line breaks, about not mumbling, about being more confident in my voice and committed to my poetry.  You selected a magical and amazing group of women who I hope will continue to be in my life for a long time to come."
--A Participant from Massachusetts

"I just wanted you to know that the workshop was truly one of the best I have ever attended. We had an amazing group of women and the way you ran the workshop and the topics you discussed seemed to be tailor-made to fit our needs.  I also want to thank you for all the wonderful input and help you gave me. I feel ready to take on poetry again with a new dedication, devotion, and insight. I am not only able to write with more abandon now (leaving the "inner censor" at the door until I need her), but I am likewise determined to give myself the space and structure needed to write.  I have already created a workspace here at home just for writing (i.e., no bills or other tasks) and am ready to axe those things that "clutter" my life and keep me from having the time to write and the space to focus. I think I knew somewhere deep down that the decluttering of daily life had to be done, but I just hadn't acted on it. Your workshop has given me the determination to act.  it was an life-altering experience and you are an amazing, inspiring woman. You made our week in the Cape much more than just a workshop. I am in love with Wellfleet -- from the beaches and bonfires to the Duck Creek Inn ghost. And I feel very fortunate to have a glimpse into your life and community."
-A Participant from Illinois

"I read a poem in our workshop and you said, 'What a brilliant idea.' Those words--that word--idea, idea, idea. My life has been cast with characters who called me stupid. Your comment has helped me (begin to) negate those voices, because once, an idea I had was called brilliant--by Marge Piercy!!! Thank you so much for that moment, for that gift.
The women I met this week have also had an impact on the way I view my life. We all came here for the same reason--we have needed your strength, your wisdom, and your poetry so we could find our own strength, our own wisdom, and our own poetry. We formed friendships and cried together--it was emotional and powerful. It was beautiful."
--A Participant from Oregon

Located some seventy-five miles out to sea on the winding tail of Cape Cod, the Town of Wellfleet is bounded by the wild Atlantic Ocean and the calm waters of Cape Cod Bay. Over 60% of the town’s land area is located within the boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore ensuring that its spring-fed kettle ponds, desolate back shore beaches, bayside salt marshes, and working harbor remain free from development.

Ten months a year—known as the ‘off-season’—Wellfleet hosts a permanent population of roughly 2,700, including fishermen, tradesmen, artists, and surprisingly active retirees, while July and August—known on the Cape as the notorious ‘summuh’ season —ensures a number-jump to 20,000 visitors from all over the world.

With its constantly changing panorama of dunes, sail boats, and trawlers, and the sandy flats that give rise to its world-famous oysters, Wellfleet is equally cherished for its Central Village, a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly shopping area of old homes, fine restaurants, cafes, a celebrated five-star library, and the cloister of more than twenty galleries—all within walking distance—that make it known as Cape Cod’s ‘art gallery town.’

Bordering Truro to the north, which in turn borders Provincetown, Wellfleet is one of three towns comprising The Outer Cape, one of the best known artists’ retreats in American cultural history. Eugene O’Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Jackson Pollack, Robert Motherwell, Edmund Wilson, Mary McCarthy, Tennessee Williams, Norman Mailer, Howard Zinn, all lived and worked here, and today, Robert Pinsky, Michael Cunningham, Alice Hoffman, Sebastian Junger, Noam Chomsky, Jhumpa Lahiri, among many others, call it their second home (see Jhumpa Lahiri's NY Times article). Wellfleet is also home to the Cape Cod Modern House Trust dedicated to preserving the experimental structures inspired by some of the most famous names in post-WWII architecture and the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, the premiere regional theater.

Check out much more about Wellfleet including campgrounds, hotels and motels, B&B’s, cottages and apartments, and restaurants, as well as articles from the NY Times about Wellfleet in the off-season and in high summer.

If you are interested in applying for the June 18 - 22, 2012 workshop please send 5 poems--in one file; limit seven pages--to hagolem@c4.net. (If possible, format to MS-Word .doc or send all poems in the body of the e-mail.) Upon acceptance to the workshop, you'll receive additional information. (Please note, submissions sometimes get caught in our spam catcher. If you don't hear back in about a week, it would be a good idea to send a note to the same address hagolem@c4.net to ask if your submission has been received.)