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Beyond Baroque’s inaugural Manuscript Lab seeks eight poets who will each revise and complete their first manuscripts over the duration of eight in-person sessions. The lab will create an active space in which peer feedback, one-on-one conferences, and a braintrust of our community is generated and shared among writers who are working on their first full-length manuscript. The Manuscript Lab will focus on building a workshop community centered around collaborative discussion and discovery. Hosted by author Sara Ellen Fowler, this program is an opportunity to learn with and from an intimate cohort and analyze what compels a successful first book of poetry–the hows and whys of architecture, craft, and thematic energy. Poets will create and develop their first manuscripts in daring new ways which expand the visions of each collection. APPLICATION DEADLINE: December 13 11:59 PM PT APPLICATION DETAILS: The Manuscript Lab program at Beyond Baroque will include multiple elements and opportunities for poets to learn about their own process and connect with other Los Angeles writers. The main goals of the lab include synthesizing the feedback of the workshop group; developing the micro and macro levels of editing; reading exemplary first books and discussing the craft, risks, and heart that make them so powerful; and, with industry perspectives, constellating the publishing landscape and honing a strategy for submitting poets’ works. Application materials will be reviewed by a committee of four local writers, with an eye toward strong formal and thematic engagements in the writing sample and clear creative goals. The application, which includes a 10-15 page work sample, is due on December 13, 2024, at 11:59 PM PST. The poets selected to participate in the program will be announced January 2025. The Manuscript Lab is offered at a low cost of $495, and will run from February 1-March 22, 2025. To apply or share, please fill out or distribute the form HERE. ABOUT SARA ELLEN FOWLER Sara Ellen Fowler is the author of Two Signatures (University of Utah Press, 2024), winner of the 2023 Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, as selected by Joan Naviyuk Kane. A recipient of a 2023 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, Sara holds a BFA in Fine Art from Art Center College of Design and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside. Her writing can be found in: The Offing, X-TRA Contemporary Art Journal, Gigantic Sequins, and Cream City Review, among others. |