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Fall 2024 Writing About Grief and Loss Workshop

Writing Poetry About Grief and Loss

In this five week, online workshop-course, participants will write and workshop poems about grief and loss in a safe and welcoming environment. In addition to facilitating a discussion of your poems, I will provide constructive written feedback on your work. We will also read together (during class time) published poems about grief and discuss the literary techniques and devices employed by the authors. Also, during each class, I will provide a prompt for an in-class writing exercise that will help you generate material and approach your poetry writing in fresh ways.

Writers at any level of experience are welcome to take this course.

Importantly, this course has a limited enrolment of eight people; the small group size allows ample time for a thorough discussion of each other’s work.

Note: For the purposes of this workshop, grief is not necessarily limited to death, but can include any kind of significant loss (for example the end of a romantic partnership or a friendship), and more systemic causes of grief (for example, ecological grief).

About your instructor:
Jacob Scheier is a Governor General’s Award winning poet and has published three full length collections of poetry with ECW Press. His poems have been published widely in magazines and anthologies across North America, as well as nominated for a National Magazine Award and longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. 

Jacob has been facilitating workshops on grief and loss for over a decade, including for the Toronto Metropolitan University’s (formerly Ryerson University) School of Continuing Education, the peer support organization Bereaved Families of Ontario, and with First Nations communities in Ontario and in the Yukon.

Events | Richard-Yves Sitoski Poetry

Dates: October 29—November 26, 2024
Time:  Tuesday Evenings. 7-9 PM Eastern Standard Time
Location: Online
Cost: $250 CAD

To register or for more information, please contact [email protected]

Writing Poetry About Disability or How to Crip Your Poem: an online workshop-begins Oct. 11, 2023

Crip Poetry Flyer Fall 2023

Wednesdays 6:30-8:30 PM Central Time, Oct.11-Nov. 15, 2023

In this six-week online workshop-course, participants will learn techniques and devices for writing poetry about disability with a disability (social-political) consciousness, also known as “Crip Poetry:” a radical subgenre of poetry focused on self-defining disability against the norms of a society made by and for able-bodied/minded people.

This workshop is open to anyone who identifies as having a disability: this is not limited to physical disability, but includes psychological disability: such as (but not limited to), those who identify as neurodiverse and/or psychiatric survivors.

Writers of all levels of experience are welcome

Register or for more information contact Jacob at [email protected]

Cost: $250—Sliding Scale for those in financial need

Writing Poetry About Disability: Or How to “Crip” Your Poem: online workshop begins June 15

Thursdays 6-8 PM Central Time, June 15-July 27, 2023 (off week June 29)

In this six-week online workshop-course, participants will learn techniques and devices for writing poetry about disability with a disability (social-political) consciousness, also known as “Crip Poetry:” a radical subgenre of poetry focused on self-defining disability against the norms of a society made by and for able-bodied/minded people.

This workshop is open to anyone who identifies as having a disability: this is not limited to physical disability, but includes psychological disability: such as (but not limited to), those who identify as neurodiverse and/or psychiatric survivors.

Writers of all levels of experience are welcome

Register or for more information contact Jacob at [email protected]

Cost: $250—Sliding Scale for those in financial need

Thursdays: 6-8 PM Central Time: June 15-July 27 (off-week June 29)

New Poetry Book Available for Pre-Order

My new poetry collection Is This Scary? (ECW Press, 2021) is ready for pre order!

Anna Mehler Paperny, author of the national bestseller Hello IWant to Die Please Fix Me has praised the book, writing:

“Jacob Scheier’s poetry yanks you back to the septic-antiseptic psych ward, the dissociation of drowning in suicidality, the mad-scientist feeling of psychotropic medication. It reminds you how vital it is to be understood, even when enduring what’s impossible to convey.”

New Workshop: Writing About Illness And Disability

Pamenar Press Presents:
Writing About Illness and Disability
with Jacob Scheier

In this eight-week writing workshop we will be writing poetry and personal narrative (prose) exploring illness and disability. Through close reading, discussion of literary devices and workshop writing exercises and assignments, participants will work towards making their experiences of illness and disability speak to others in an evocative and possibly provocative way. Subject matter is not limited to physical illness and/or disability but includes mental health issues—as you identify them, (including, but certainly not limited to trauma). There is, in fact, no limitation on what “counts” as illness or disability. This course is inclusive and embraces diversity: people of color, indigenous peoples, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people of all backgrounds are welcomed and encouraged to be participants. No prior creative writing experience is needed to take this workshop. Novice writers are encouraged to take part.

“Jacob creates a class atmosphere that is safe, supportive, and truly creative, and this has given all of us the freedom to write very moving and powerful pieces around the subjects of grief and loss.” —Dianne Moore, Learner, former student of Jacob Scheier’s Writing About Grief workshop course.

Thursdays 6:30-9 pm October 3-November 21
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 401
Cost: $300.00 (sliding scale available for those in financial need)

About Jacob:
Jacob Scheier is a Governor General’s Award-winning poet. He is the author of two poetry collections with ECW Press: More to Keep us Warm (2007) and Letter from Brooklyn (2013). He is also the author of the nonfiction ebook My Never-Ending Acid Trip (2013) published by The Toronto Star. His poems and works of personal narrative have been widely published in journals and anthologies across North America and in the UK. For several years Jacob has facilitated creative writing workshops, including the course Writing About Grief, which he has taught at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education and with indigenous communities in the Yukon and Ontario—amongst many other places and communities. Writing About Grief was inspired by Jacob’s experience being a peer-facilitator of support groups for bereaved young adults. Similarly, Writing About Illness and Disability comes out of Jacob’s personal experience and creative writing. Jacob also has an academic background in Disability Studies. To learn more go to jacobscheier.org

About Pamenar Press:
Pamenar Press is an independent, cross-cultural, multilingual, experimental publisher, based in the UK, Canada, and Iran. Learn more about us at: pamenarpress.com

To register or for further information please contact: info@pamenarpress