Genre: Poetry

The Writer’s Retreat at Good Contrivance Farm

Good Contrivance Farm, an educational nonprofit, offers residencies of up to four weeks year-round to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers on a Victorian farm in Reisterstown, Maryland, located 24 miles north of Baltimore. Workshops and craft classes with visiting faculty are offered outdoors from May to September. The faculty includes poet and nonfiction writer Ross Gay, memoirist R. Eric Thomas, and publishing professional Jane Friedman (Jane Friedman Media).

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
May 25, 2025
Rolling Admissions: 
yes
Application Deadline: 
May 25, 2025
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
May 25, 2025
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

The Writer’s Retreat at Good Contrivance Farm, 2015 Emory Road, Reisterstown, MD 21136. (443) 529-2939. 

Contact City: 
Reisterstown
Contact State: 
MD
Contact Zip / Postal Code: 
21136
Country: 
US
Add Image: 
Barn apt

The Pistil by Ben Lerner

Caption: 

“Noses of bats, it’s time / To write the first poem in English / Each line the last, small / rain turning glass.” In this Poetry Book Society video, Ben Lerner reads his poem “The Pistil,” which appears in a special U.K. slipcase edition of his collection The Lights released by Granta Books and the Poetry Books Society.

Genre: 

Etymology

2.11.25

Did you know that the word robust comes from the Latin word robur meaning “oak tree?” Merriam-Webster’s “12 Words Whose History Will Surprise You” provides the fascinating etymological history of words such as boudoir, phlegm, amethyst, and assassin, essentially mini lessons demonstrating an English word’s linguistic origins from an assortment of languages, including Medieval Latin, Greek, Arabic, French, and Middle English. Jot down a list of some of your favorite nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and look up their origin stories. (Tip: Merriam-Webster often lists a word’s etymology in the “Word History” section.) Write a poem inspired by this newly discovered and intriguing story behind the language, incorporating past iterations of the word into your verse.

A Reading With Lise Goett and Mark Wunderlich

Caption: 

Lise Goett reads from her third poetry collection, The Radiant (Tupelo Press, 2024), in this Jules’ Poetry Playhouse virtual reading with Mark Wunderlich hosted by Jules Nyquist and John Roche. The Radiant is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 

The Luminous Life: Debut Poets Virtual Reading

Caption: 

Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González hosts this two-part event celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “The Luminous Life: Our Twentieth Annual Look at Debut Poets” from our January/February 2025 issue. The virtual event includes readings from the poets, as well as conversations about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.

Genre: 

In Motion

Edges of Ailey is an immersive exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art centered around the twentieth-century choreographer, dancer, and artist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The show spotlights multimedia presentations of Ailey’s work, recorded footage, notebooks and drawings, as well as works that inspired Ailey and have been inspired by him in the forms of literature, music, and visual art. Write a poem centered on movements of the body, whether a creative motion like a dance move or the everyday, repetitive motion of carrying out a task. Allow yourself the freedom to experiment with page space—choosing different sizes or styles of script, incorporating small drawings or cutouts—to create a collage-like piece.

Roosevelt Poetry Reading: Ilya Kaminsky

Caption: 

In this Harvard Radcliffe Institute event, Ilya Kaminsky reads a selection of poems from his collection Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019), including “We Lived Happily During the War” and “While the Child Sleeps, Sonya Undresses,” and discusses being an immigrant and poet in between languages in a conversation with Stephanie Sandler.

Genre: 

Poetry and Shame With Matthew Nienow

Caption: 

“Some things, then, cannot be repaired and must go on, into a kind of dusk that seems somehow endless,” reads Matthew Nienow from his poem “Dusk Loop,” which appears in his second poetry collection, If Nothing (Alice James Books, 2025), in this reading and conversation for the Table For Deuce podcast hosted by poets Kate Hanson Foster and Michael Schmeltzer. Nienow’s collection is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 

Pages

Subscribe to Poetry