Poetry Forge makes space for poets & secret poets

through online and in person writing workshops & retreats, practice periods, creative mentorship

& an annual manuscript incubator called A Body of Work.

All are welcome.

Explore

This is imagination school.

“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.

—Audre Lorde

"It is no small thing to create and hold welcoming, creative, beautiful, soft space in this world, and Holly is doing it. And teaching by example, which is of course the best way to teach."

—Kim F., Poetry Forge Student since 2020

What We Do

We are paying attention.

We are writing poems.

We are imagining a future and insisting that art and ideas and creativity be part of it.

We are practicing softly, softly.

We are materializing our inner lives.

We are saving ourselves and some of our kin.

We are fostering places where poetry lives on and beyond the page.

We are repairing some of the damage that has been done in other times, other places.

Poetry is our way of being in the world.

Workshops
& Classes

Now enrolling

TELL EVERYONE

Now, today, I shall

sing beautifully for

my friends’ pleasure

SAPPHO (Mary Barnard, Translation)

Join Us

Poetry Forge offers year-round programming for emerging writers from across North America, Europe and beyond. We also offer free workshops at the end of the year and once each spring. Subscribe to the mailing list to receive an occasional letter, Ars Poetica, containing resources and reflections of interest to poets and secret poets, news about upcoming offerings, and musings about life on the southern coast of Maine.

I believe the imagination is essential to the well being of people and the planet.

I am interested in cultivating spaces and proposing alternatives that foster our capacity to surprise ourselves with possibilities.

The practice of poetry helps us to exist in deeper sympathy with our other knowing, our innate creative potential, and our truest selves, all of which ultimately benefit the collective.

This kind of cultural work is radical, even when it’s often very quiet. Even when you hardly notice what’s happening, poets and poetry make our lives gentler, kinder, and meaningful. We make life more beautiful.

As an educator, I am devoted to fostering a sense of confidence and sturdiness in the face of all that would undermine these ways of being in the world.

Poetry Forge makes space for poets & secret poets

through online and in person writing workshops & retreats, practice periods, creative mentorship

& an annual manuscript incubator called A Body of Work.

All are welcome.

Explore

This is imagination school.

"It is no small thing to create and hold welcoming, creative, beautiful, soft space in this world, and Holly is doing it. And teaching by example, which is of course the best way to teach."

—Kim F., Poetry Forge Student since 2020

What We Do

Workshops
& Classes

Now enrolling

Join Us

I believe the imagination is essential to the well being of people and the planet.

I am interested in cultivating spaces and proposing alternatives that foster our capacity to surprise ourselves with possibilities.

The practice of poetry helps us to exist in deeper sympathy with our other knowing, our innate creative potential, and our truest selves, all of which ultimately benefit the collective.

This kind of cultural work is radical, even when it’s often very quiet. Even when you hardly notice what’s happening, poets and poetry make our lives gentler, kinder, and meaningful. We make life more beautiful.

As an educator, I am devoted to fostering a sense of confidence and sturdiness in the face of all that would undermine these ways of being in the world.

—Holly Wren Spaulding

Founder, Poetry Forge

Poetry Forge makes space for poets & secret poets

through online and in person writing workshops & retreats, practice periods, creative mentorship

& an annual manuscript incubator called A Body of Work.

All are welcome.

Explore

This is imagination school.

"It is no small thing to create and hold welcoming, creative, beautiful, soft space in this world, and Holly is doing it. And teaching by example, which is of course the best way to teach."

—Kim F., Poetry Forge Student since 2020

What We Do

Workshops& Classes

Now enrolling

Join Us

I believe the imagination is essential to the well being of people and the planet.

I am interested in cultivating spaces and proposing alternatives that foster our capacity to surprise ourselves with possibilities.

The practice of poetry helps us to exist in deeper sympathy with our other knowing, our innate creative potential, and our truest selves, all of which ultimately benefit the collective.

This kind of cultural work is radical, even when it’s often very quiet. Even when you hardly notice what’s happening, poets and poetry make our lives gentler, kinder, and meaningful. We make life more beautiful.

As an educator, I am devoted to fostering a sense of confidence and sturdiness in the face of all that would undermine these ways of being in the world.

—Holly Wren Spaulding

Founder, Poetry Forge

Workshops
& Classes