Write a Demi-Sonnet!
Instructor: Erin Murphy
Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Time: 3:00-4:30pm (Eastern)
Price: $25 (payment options)
In this generative workshop, you will learn to write a demi-sonnet, a form invented by the instructor, Erin Murphy. Demi-sonnets are seven lines (half a sonnet!) and end with a full or slant rhyme. Poet Claire Bateman calls demi-sonnets “small but alarmingly penetrative,” while James Allen Hall says they “go by quickly but their staying power is immense.” Read sample demi-sonnets here and here. And here is a prize-winning demi-sonnet by Jennifer Wang written in response to a Rattle magazine prompt. During the workshop, you’ll read and discuss sample demi-sonnets, write one (or several) yourself, and learn how practicing the compressed form has applications for composing and editing both poetry and prose.
NOTE: Participants should bring to the workshop 3-5 original poems of 20-60 lines each.
Erin Murphy is the author or editor of fourteen books, chapbooks, and anthologies, most recently Fluent in Blue (Grayson Books, 2024) and Human Resources (forthcoming from Salmon Poetry). Her collections of demi-sonnets include Taxonomies (2022), Assisted Living (2018), and Word Problems (2011). She is poetry editor of The Summerset Review and professor of English at Penn State Altoona. Website: erin-murphy.com