Reading & Writing Robert Frost
Saturday, September 6, 2025
1-3pm at The Frost Place
John F. Kennedy famously said that Robert Frost, “bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse.” From his mastery of traditional verse forms and metrics, to depictions of rural New England, to his command of American colloquial speech, arguably, no poet is more essential to an understanding of American poetry than Robert Frost.
In this course, we will examine several of Frost’s poems closely, listen to him read his own work, and gather insights from his interviews and biography. We’ll look at Frost’s use of trimeter, iambic pentameter, and blank verse, consider his unmistakable tone and use of the dramatic monologue, consider themes such as duplicity, isolation, nature, and existential questioning, and then try our hand and our poems.
This course is for anyone interested in investigating Frost more deeply and learning from one of the true masters. No experience necessary.
Writing Nature in Place
Saturday, September 13, 2025
1-3pm at The Frost Place
Drawing inspiration from the natural beauty around us, this workshop offers participants an opportunity to take in nature and turn their observations into powerful and vivid poems. In this course, we’ll study examples of celebrated poems that effectively capture the wonder and beauty of nature. We’ll also discuss techniques such as metaphor, imagery, repetition, and sound as well as cover effective use of line breaks. No experience necessary.
About Jodie Hollander
Jodie Hollander’s work has appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry Magazine, The Yale Review, The Harvard Review, Poetry, PN Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry London, The Hudson Review, The Dark Horse, The New Criterion, The Rialto, Verse Daily, The Best Australian Poems of 2011, and The Best Australian Poems of 2015. Her debut full-length collection, My Dark Horses, was published with Liverpool University Press & Oxford University Press. Her second collection, Nocturne, was also published with Liverpool & Oxford University Press in 2023 and was longlisted for the Laurel Prize in nature writing. Hollander is the recipient of a MacDowell fellowship and a Fulbright fellowship in South Africa. She is also the originator of ‘Poetry in the Parks,’ in conjunction with several National Parks and Monuments in the US. In 2024, Hollander was the first poet in residence for the Elmet Trust in the Calder Valley, where she wrote and taught out of the childhood home of Ted Hughes. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. https://www.jodiehollander.com/