Since April of 2013, I have been privileged to be a part of The Poetry Lab, a twice monthly workshop held at WE Labs in Long Beach and led by Danielle Mitchell. It’s part generative workshop, part show-and-tell, and part community group. Not only have I have learned so much about the art of poetry here, I also have made immeasurable connections in the poetry world and built a poetry family. Previous to 2013, I have to admit that I wrote in isolation and only shared my poetry with supportive friends and family. I did not learn how to really improve my writing until I received real craft knowledge and constructive feedback from other poets.

I am very proud to be the first on the Member Spotlight on The Poetry Lab website. You can read a little more about me and what the workshop has meant to me on the site. You can also read a poem I wrote from a writing prompt in a Poetry Lab session called “Heaps of Your Life”. Enjoy!