L A N D / L A N G U A G E: Poetry Workshop

In this workshop, we will closely examine how land and language are connected forces, both in
contemporary poetry and in our own writing. Poets often turn to the natural world as a means
for investigating that which is hidden from view. Flora and fauna can reflect a speaker’s
interiority, refract a memory, or represent a specific cultural history. Inside, outside. Outside,
inside. Yet land has never been a neutral component—neither has language.

Email us at hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up!

How does place enter a poem? When is incorporating the natural world effective, and when is it
a deflection? How might we encounter the landscape around us to unsettle our diction and risk
new forms?

Together we will read a selection of poems that explicitly reference the natural world, analyzing
these works to better understand both their experimental and formal elements. Classes will begin
with close reading and discussion, then move into workshop, where we will offer feedback and
reflection on one another’s writing.

Open to all writers: emerging, established, or lapsed. Non-native English speakers are very
welcome. Class is limited to 10 participants.

emet ezell is a visual artist and writer based in Berlin, Germany. Their creative practice spans poetry, hand papermaking, performance, and print. Winner of the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, ezell’s writing has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry Daily, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Hand Papermaking Magazine, among other arts-based publications. They have received fellowships and funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, the European Commission for Culture and Creativity, Djerassi Resident Artist’s Program, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Kala Art Institute, Pedvāle International Art Park, and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2024, ezell was awarded the Literature Stipend from the Berlin Senate and in 2025, their solo-exhibition, Destruction Is and Is Not Forever, debuted in Latvia. Their work orbits themes of devotion, dispossession, ruin, and return.

Photo: Ben Mönks.