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Intensive workshops

Beyond Baroque’s intensive writing workshops allow writers from all schools and walks of life to learn from world-class authors in single and multi-session workshops.

En-chant-ment: a generative poetry workshop with Sarah Maclay Saturday, March 22, 2025 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM PT In Person at Beyond Baroque Ready to give yourself an inner break? To create a little bubble of temporary sanity? In this generative workshop with Sarah Maclay, we’ll come to understand the link between the middle syllable of the word “enchantment” and a key craft technique that has ties to meditative practices and that, in the right hands, can further the sense of magical engagement that the word implies, as well as a temporary suspension from our more distracting and vexing inner narratives. And, fortunately, it’s not that hard to do! A reading and examination of poems that exemplify this effect—from Merwin, Lorca, Stevens and Woloch—will smooth our way toward creating spell-like poems of our own. These inspirations will be followed by a leap into a generative exercise and a sharing of our initial drafts. For good measure, you’ll also be able to review the key points of the exercise in Beyond Baroque’s own The Writing Life: 55 Years at Beyond Baroque. Nightfall Marginalia (What Books Press), a 2023 Foreword INDIES Finalist for Poetry, is Sarah Maclay’s fifth collection. Her fourth chapbook, The H.D. Sequence—A Concordance (Walton Well Press), came out in 2024. Her poems and essays, recognized by a Yaddo residency, a City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship, the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and a Pushcart Special Mention, have appeared in APR, FIELD, Ploughshares, The Writer’s Chronicle, The Best American Erotic Poems, Poetry International, where she served as Book Review Editor, and elsewhere. “Fugue States Coming Down the Hall,” produced at Oberlin and the Beyond Text Festival at Beyond Baroque, appears in Scenarios: Scripts to Perform. She’s taught creative writing at USC and LMU, offers workshops at Beyond Baroque and is producer/host of Poetry.LA’s “The Poetry of Night.” Her poems are also the basis for a sequence of classical art songs, “Identity Had Gone,” by composer Kostas Rekleitis.

Beyond Baroque's Fifth Annual 30 in 30 Workshop with Brendan Constantine Saturdays March 29 - April 26 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM PT All workshops will be held online via Zoom. Poet Brendan Constantine returns to Beyond Baroque for National Poetry Month and his popular 30/30 Challenge Workshop! Beginning on the last Saturday of March and through every Saturday in April, participants will engage in projects and discussions to inspire even the most reluctant writer. At the end of each session, everyone receives a packet of prompts and materials to keep you writing a poem a day! This is its fifth popular year in a row and spaces will go fast, so reserve today! This workshop will be conducted across five Saturdays, beginning on Saturday March 29 - Saturday April 26, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. pdt. Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, Tin House, Ploughshares, and Poem-a-Day among other journals. A popular performer, Brendan has presented his work to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, also appearing on NPR's All Things Considered, TED ED, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. He currently teaches at the Windward School and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His fifth collection, ‘The Opposites Game’ is forthcoming from Red Hen Press.