10:00 AM   Session 1: Bill Wunder: Exploring and Discovering Identity

Everyone has a story. Tell us yours…

Participants are invited to explore the pivotal moments, places, and people that have shaped their lives, and have made them who they are today. The process of looking back will re-awaken memories of events and influences that create one’s identity.

Bill Wunder is the author of five poetry collections including his newest, Welcome to Paradise. Bill is a Bucks County Poet Laureate, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and the co-winner of the 2022 Allen Ginsberg Prize for Poetry.

 (15-minute break)

11:00 AM   Session 2: J.C. Todd: What's Your War?

Everyone has a personal war. Something we’re battling for. Battling against. Resisting. In this generative workshop, moving from model poems to freewriting, each writer will explore their personal wars. With a few engaging exercises, we’ll begin to shape our free-writes into poems or brief prose, seeking what W. H. Auden sought: clear thinking about mixed emotions.

J.C. Todd’s most recent books include The Damages of Morning and Beyond Repair, which draws from almost two decades of investigation into the effects of war on women. Her work has won the Rita Dove Prize in Poetry and has twice been a finalist for Poetry Society of America award.