Adjunct Instructor Rebecca Schwab of the Department of English ran a weekly adult poetry workshop at the Dunkirk Free Library for seven weeks -- from the beginning of July through mid-August. The group met on Tuesday evenings for an hour at the library. The size of the group varied from week to week, depending on people's summer commitments, but there were always four to eight poets present.
Each week, the group looked at a different aspect of poetry, did generative exercises, read examples, shared their work, and were assigned "optional" homework. By the end of the class, the "regulars" had built up a friendly community. The workshop ended with a poetry reading, to which family members and friends of the poets were invited.The workshop was sponsored by the Friends of the Dunkirk Free Library. President Virginia Horvath honored the group by attending the reading, and told us about a current exhibit of her personal collage poetry. The workshop poets took a field trip a few days later to see the exhibit, and said it was just wonderful.
