Events & Writing Group Info

Each session, MTSU Write hosts events that nurture the writing community and celebrate literary life.  We also are adding facilitaed writing groups to our list of offerings. Check here for updates as events and writing groups will change from season to season.

Throughout the year, MTSU co-sponsors Poetry in the Boro, a monthly reading and open mic event.  Follow the schedule and learn more about featured writers here:  https://www.facebook.com/PoetryInTheBoro/

Want to be the first to hear about our events? Email us to join our newsletter email list: [email protected]. Just put “newsletter” in the subject line and your preferred email in the body of the email and we’ll do the rest. Thanks!

Writing Groups

MTSU Write is pleased to offer writing groups for writers who want community and accountability. These writing groups are facilitated by one of our mentors, who acts as an organizer and co-participant, sharing their work alongside other members of the group.  

Summer 2024 Writing Group Availability:

• TBD

The registration fee is $100 per semester, which aligns with our mentorship session schedule.

If you’d like to join one of the groups, email [email protected]. Please share your genre of choice, a short description of the project you’re working on, and a 1-2 page writing sample. Upon acceptance to the group, you will be given a link to pay the registration fee.

Spring Saturdays

Each spring, we are pleased to offer a series of free master classes on Saturdays. These classes vary in topics on the writing life, from craft talks to workshops to information about publishing and freelancing. While these classes are free and open to the community, advanced registration is required and participation is limited to 20 students. You can register for any of these classes using this link.

Radical Approaches to the Line: A Workshop on Headlessness with C.T. Salazar, April 20, 10am-noon, ACB 118

Lately I’ve been in awe of how lyric poems are capable of both articulating despair and making a poem-wide space where are not occupied by it. While the poetic line and despair itself are long reckoned with, how we reimagine the line speaks to our capacity to continue building a space for ourselves and others despite despair. Where do our minds go when this is accomplished? How do we inform the poem that informs us? What are the parts of the poem’s ecology that make this unique relationship with despair, and with ourselves possible? Ultimately, how are poets using the poetic line to make this space possible, to push further possibility? In this generative workshop, we’ll think through possibilities for lineation. We’ll look to Audre Lorde, Jenny Johnson, Agha Shahid Ali, C.D. Wright, and others before attempting our own lyric poems capable of reckoning with our simultaneously collective and unique despair.

Summer Simmer

For summer 2024, we’ll celebrate our Summer Simmer with a visit from writer Pauletta Hansel.

On Friday, May 31, our friends Poetry in the Boro will feature Pauletta at their monthly poetry reading and open mic at Dapper Owl. This event is free and open to the public. Doors 5:30pm, event starts at 6:00pm.

Then on Saturday, June 1 from 9am-noon, join us for “The Power of Two: The Diptych Form” in ACB 118 on the MTSU Campus. This event is also free, though advanced registration is required. Save your seat here!

The Power of Two: The Diptych Form

In this generative workshop, poet and memoirist Pauletta Hansel will introduce the Diptych, a form for lyric essay or poetry which offers the writer two lenses through which to examine a subject. The diptych is a form wherein you can lay side-by-side two differing views of the same subject, or two subjects in which you hope to find commonalities. In this generative workshop, we’ll take a close look at examples and each participant will have the opportunity to create and share a first draft of your own. Optional: feel free to bring photos or other objects which relate to a subject you wish to explore.