The Poem as a Container

In this workshop, writers will be encouraged to imagine the poem as a container – a way to hold our ghosts and ancestors, our memories and hauntings, our questions and uncertainties, old loves and new flames, the wildness of our secret selves. And what happens when we place a certain feeling, memory, or thought into a specific poetic structure? The sonnet, perhaps? Or Airea D. Matthews’ “Letters to My Would-be Lover…”? Seeking to balance the physical and metaphorical pressurizer that is poetry, this generative workshop will guide you through a series of “rapid-fire” writing exercises and imitations – each designed to nurture the instinct of writing, to move the poet out of their own way! You will leave energized, with several musings and poem drafts. Led by Ashley Wynter. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Ashley E. Wynter is a writer, editor, curator, and community organizer living in Saint Paul, MN. Invested in the transformative power of storytelling, Wynter is also the poetry mentor and program coordinator for More Than a Single Story’s emerging black writers program. Her award-winning poetry has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Loft Mentor Series, the Carolyn Moore Writers Residency, the Tofte Lake Center National Emerging Artist Residency, and most recently, a 2025-28 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. Wynter’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in the Black Warrior Review, Torch Literary Arts, The Florida Review, New Millenium, and elsewhere.