With its emphasis on writing as discovery, Robert Frost’s warning “no surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader” seems to challenge the classic imperative to “write what you know.” How might writers—and especially poets—cultivate this surprise, embracing recklessness and courting uncertainty? Join BC Professor and award-winning poet Allison Adair for a poetry workshop that explores The Poetic Wild. In this session, discussion of fresh images, unforgettable metaphors, expressive line-breaks, and the poetic “turn” are paired with quick-burst exercises to shake up our work and to discover what might lie just beyond our control.

Allison Adair’s recent poems appear in Best American Poetry (2018), Kenyon Review Online, North American Review, and ZYZZYVA. Her work has received the Pushcart Prize (2019), the Florida Review Editors’ Award, the Orlando Prize, and first place in Mid-American Review’s Fineline Competition. Adair teaches English and creative writing at Boston College.