Bernadette Mayer’s Fall 2014 Poetry Workshop

Bernadette Mayer will lead her continuing workshop series on a Fall Session beginning in October 2014. She will once again provide participating poets with the opportunity to engage in her language experiments. She will also talk about her mentors and contemporaries and suggest new directions in verse. She will also suggest books you should have to aid in your writing and how to publish your poems. The workshop is not a traditional critique of participant’s previous work but an opportunity to fulfill Bernadette’s creative writing assignments. Completed assignments are then presented to the group and used as springboards for wide ranging discussion. Bernadette will continue to write and distribute new poems for the benefit of workshop participants and subject matter.Kevin Killian writing on Famous Poetry Workshops mentions Bernadette Mayer’s Poetry Project Workshop in NYC “that gave birth to all those exercises.” Locally, Bernadette has been exercising and teaching those poets who have taken advantage of poetry workshops held in her living room.

Bernadette Mayer’s poetry writing workshop takes place at her home in East Nassau, NY. The workshop will meet on six Saturdays: Oct. 4th, Nov. 1st, Dec. 7th in 2014 and Jan 3rd, Feb. 7th, March 6thin 2015 Each meeting will take place between 2pm – 4pm. Mayer will facilitate a conducive atmosphere that will bring forth enhanced new poems from each of the participants. Total Cost: $65.00, including drinks and light refreshments served. Workshop limited to eight participants.

Bernadette Mayer (born May 12, 1945 in Brooklyn, NY ) is a poet and prose writer. In 1967 she received a BA from New School for Social Research. She has since edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci and the United Artists Press with Lewis Warsh, and worked as Director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project. Her new book Helens of Troy is a Spring 2012 release by New Directions. For more than a decade she and poet Philip Good has lived in East Nassau. From the beginning of this series of workshops in September 2011, she has provided an expansive menu of poetic technique and belief as well as her careful listening to an appreciative core of workshop participants. New participants are welcome to their lively get togethers.

Contact: By e-mail contact ACASLINE@AOL.COM to reserve your place. The mailing address if e-mail is not available is Rootdrinker, P.O. Box 522, Delmar, NY 12054.

Directions: Take Route 20 East from the Capital District. Just pass Brainard turn left on Route 66 North towards Troy. After a short time on Route 66 take a left on to Tatsawawassa Rd. Mayer’s house is 53 Tatsawawassa Rd. Red in color, it is the first house on the left side of the road. Google map using 53 Tatsawawassa, East Nassua, NY as destination is recommended. Car pool from Albany area is available.

Payment: Payment of $65 may be made by check or money order. $40 of the total is a tax deductible contribution. Payment check should be made out to “Committee on Poetry”. IMPORTANT: write “Friends of Bernadette Mayer Fund” on check memo. Provide your mailing address to receive a letter to include in your tax returns for your deductions.

Send you payment to Alan Casline, Rootdrinker Institute, PO Box 522, Delmar, NY 12054. We will verify your payment for the workshop and forward your contribution for your tax deduction.