poetry in Ann Arbor?

July 13, 2016 6:18 PM

I just moved to Ann Arbor and would like to meet some other moderately serious poets. Can you recommend a class, workshop, critique group, or recurring meeting that's not aimed at beginners?

If it matters, I'm in my mid-thirties and am technically affiliated with a non-poetry-related department at the University of Michigan.

posted by yarntheory to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

The Zell Writers program has an events calendar:
http://lsa.umich.edu/writers/news-and-events/readings-and-events.html

LSA also has a separate events calendar that may unique events (probably some cross-listed events as well):
https://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/events
posted by youknowwhatpart at 7:07 PM on July 13, 2016

Check out at Literati. They have frequent events that bring in authors and poets, so you could meet other poets there. And it's just an awesome place to pick up a book of poems, browse around, or get a coffee. It's one of my favorite places in Ann Arbor :)
posted by Mouse Army at 3:44 AM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you are female-identified and use Facebook, there a big group of moderately serious or very serious poets there, and they have regional subgroups. You'd have to start by joining Binders full of Women Writers and then look for the poetry group.

I just read someone who lives in AA but am blanking on it. I am pretty sure that Sarah Messer is not too far away if you like her work.

Also, you could try to get involved with the Michigan Quarterly Review, which is published there. If you offered to be a reader for them, I'm sure they'd be appreciative and you'd meet new folks, but that looks awesome on a cover letter.
posted by mermaidcafe at 6:44 AM on July 14, 2016

Best answer: Ann Arbor poet here. I wasn't really successful at finding serious writing groups until I went to the Bear River Writer's Conference in northern Michigan, where I met many writers from Ann Arbor. It's sponsored by the University, but if you want to go, you need to enroll as soon as registration is open - it literally fills up within hours. Two of the years I went, I ended up forming writers' groups with people in my classes - those are going strong years later.

My guess would be that the Michigan Quarterly Review is staffed by U of M MFA students. It can be hard to break into U of M related stuff if you aren't in their program. (I'll never forget striking up a conversation with one of the professors from the U of M program at a reading - as soon as she saw someone she was interested in across the room, she walked away from me without so much as a "got to go.") You might meet people volunteering for 826Michigan, but I have no personal experience with that. I've wondered about enrolling in the MFA program at Eastern in Ypsilanti, which would probably be easier to get into. I've known some people who've taken classes at Washtenaw Community College. Laura Kasischke taught there before she got picked up by U of M. She also regularly teaches at Bear River, as do several of the professors in the U of M MFA program.

Feel free to memail me.
posted by FencingGal at 7:58 AM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]