Lectures, Panels & Workshops
I’m an experienced educator and public speaker who loves engaging with an audience to inspire, spark new ideas, and deepen engagement with writing. I’ve taught at the community college, undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education levels since 2003. I’m open to everything from talks to longer residencies. Contact me to discuss your needs.
Book Club Visits
If you’re part of a book club and read one of my books, I’d be happy to drop in to one of your meetings to discuss the book with you, the writing process, the publishing process, and some of the larger ideas the book raised for you. use the Contact Me link above to get in touch and talk about your club’s interest.
Classroom Visits
I’ve enjoyed chatting with students in higher education, secondary schools, and middle schools for many years. If your students have read my work, created new work from prompts based on my work, or just want to speak to a working writer, I would be thrilled to show up and talk. I have good flexibility to meet students via Zoom, and can appear in person for local schools or schools that can fund a visit.
Workshops
Unexpected Memoirs
Memoir can move the reader and inspire empathy, but it can also invigorate the senses and surprise even as it enlightens. In this talk, we look at powerful examples of contemporary memoirs by Carmen Maria Machado, Wendy C. Ortiz, Sun Yip, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Maggie Smith, Claudia Rankine, and others to find new approaches to framing the lived experience, examining its meaning, and conveying meaning to readers.
Traditional Poetic Forms
Writing in traditional forms is an excellent way for developing poets to sharpen their craft skills. While they may seem restrictive and boring, forms demand concentration, ingenuity, and mastery of diction, rhythm, repetition, and image. We review great examples of 20 and 21st century works to inspire new sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, and more.
Innovative Poetic Forms
Taking the broadest possible definition of “form,” this workshop invites writers to challenge their assumptions about a poem’s shape and internal mechanics. We discuss works by Morgan Parker, Jos Charles, Chase Berggrun, Dare Williams, Katie Ford, Matthew Hittinger, and many others in pursuit of our own new discoveries. Can be delivered as a talk or a multi-week workshop.
Writing Longer Poems & Sequences
The long poem is a grand tradition in American poetry. We look at multi-page and booklength works to locate the engines within the poems, then apply these tools and lessons to developing new work. Poets will be challenged to think beyond the last line in pursuit of long works that dive deep into their subjects and voices.
Charles Jensen | Writer 