Revise, Rethink, Reveal: A Two-Part Poetry Workshop at Politics and Prose led by Rose Solari

Revise, Rethink, Reveal: A Two-Part Poetry Workshop at Politics and Prose 

This poetry workshop at Politics and Prose is led by Rose Solari, distinguished author of The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and Difficult Weather. It is designed to help experienced poets revise a “stuck” poem and bring it to a satisfying completion.

All poets have them. Whether stuffed in a drawer or buried in a computer file – those poems which started so promisingly, and then, somehow, stalled. This 2-session workshop will give you a chance to rethink a “problem” poem, and see it through to a satisfying revision in the company of other writers struggling with the same issue. The week before our first meeting, each participant will submit one such poem to the group. These poems will be the focus of our discussion, as we examine first the strengths of each, and then move to possible strategies for revision. Along the way, we’ll explore the elements of poetry, focusing particularly on line and stanza breaks, voice, and sound, and uncover how those elements come to form a unified, meaningful whole. The following week, we’ll meet again, revisions in hand, for more group discussion. Be ready to stretch your comfort zone, expand your poetry toolbox, and have fun.

Both meetings will take place at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC

Meeting one: Thursday, 10/18/2018, 10am-12:30pm

Meeting two: Thursday, 10/25/2018, 10am-12:30pm

More details will soon be available on the P&P site 

Rose Solari and David Gewanter are reading at Second Story Books, Oct 21st, 8pm

Come join Rose and David for an evening of poetry at Second Story Books on Dupont Circle.

The Dupont Circle store, frequently cited as one of the best bookstores in the Washington metropolitan area by Washingtonian Magazine, The City Paper and various consumer polls, marks its 40th anniversary in 2018. An historic year calls for an historic reading series! For every month thus far of 2018 Second Story has hosted two noteworthy authors for intimate readings. For the month of October, David Gewanter and ASP’s Rose Solari will be swapping stories and poems in a unique and cozy environment, surrounded on all sides by rare and collectible books. Come out to support poetry at Second Story Books!

David Gewanter is the author of several collections of poetry, including In the Belly(1997), winner of Ploughshares’s John C. Zacharis First Book Award, and War Bird (2009). Gewanter writes a layered, lyrical poetry of ideas that often explores themes of family, nature, and reason. Reviewing The Sleep of Reason (2003), a finalist for the Academy of American Poets’ James Laughlin Award, poet David Orr described Gewanter as “a writer who seems to possess that most curious and necessary of literary attributes—a moral vision.”Gewanter’s honors include a Whiting Writers’ Award and a Witter Bynner Fellowship at the Library of Congress. His poetry has been included in The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology (2000, ed. Michael Collier) and New Voices (2002, ed. Heather McHugh).

Rose Solari is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and Difficult Weather; the one-act play, Looking for Guenevere, in which she also performed; and a novel, A Secret Woman. She has lectured and taught writing workshops at many institutions, including Arizona State University’s Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing; the University of Maryland, College Park; St. John’s College, Annapolis; the Jung Society of Washington; and The Centre for Creative Writing at Oxford University’s Kellogg College. Her awards include the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, and Academy of American Poets’ University Prize, The Columbia Book Award, an EMMA award for excellence in journalism, and multiple grants.

Hear David read “the Unspeakable” The Unspeakable

Hear Rose read “The Last Girl” The Last Girl

Grace Cavalieri at the National Press Club 41st annual Book Fair and Author Night

Friday, Nov 2nd, 5:30pm

Come join Grace who will be featured along with her legacy book Other Voices, Other Lives at the 41st annual National Press Club Book Fair and Author Night. There will be reading, mingling, and basking in an effulgent spirit of Word-Breath! Come meet The Real Author!

The Capitol region’s premiere holiday book event is back for the 41st year! The National Press Club Journalism Institute is once again partnering with landmark local book seller Politics & Prose for a night of pols, pundits and prose.

Authors will be on hand to talk to their fans and sign books at this most exciting literary event. Patrons can browse for books at the Club’s headquarters from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for NPC and Politics & Prose members; $10 public. Tickets will be sold online and at the door.

The Book Fair is a fundraiser for The National Press Club Journalism Institute, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, which advances journalistic practice by equipping professionals with the skills and competence to innovate, leveraging emerging trends, recognizing leaders and innovators, mentoring the next generation of journalism and communications professionals, and advocating for a free press.

Grace Cavalieri is the author of 23 books and chapbooks of poetry and 26 produced plays. A co-founder of WPFW-FM, a groundbreaking public radio station. Grace began her legendary interview show, “The Poet and the Poem,” at that station 40 years ago. Cavalieri’s many awards include The George Garrett Award for Service to Literature from the national Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP); a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington Independent Review of Books; two Allen Ginsburg awards for poetry; the Paterson Poetry Prize; the inaugural Folger Shakespeare Library’s Columbia Book Award for Service to Literature; and a Silver Medal from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her papers are housed in the Gelman Library at George Washington University. 

Hear Grace read “Work is my Secret Lover” Work is my Secret Lover

Read her essay The Real Author

Rose Solari is reading poetry at Zed’s Cafe, Nov. 2, 6pm

Come join Rose for an evening of poetry at Zed’s Cafe on the 2nd of November. She will be reading from her three poetry collections and novel. Zed’s is known for its delicious dark roast and Rose for her intimate reading style.

Grace Cavalieri says, “No one reads poetry like Rose Solari. She enters the essence of each word with a voice, making meaning become spirit. I think her great gift is the understanding that language can make you feel what the speaker experiences…so she proceeds to make you feel her passion, her wit, and love.”

Hear Rose read the title poem from her third collection The Last Girl The Last Girl