CCA celebrates the creativity of our community, through our cinema and arts, generating transformative experiences designed to ignite minds and connect people.
In line with this mission, CCA is pleased to partner with Elizabeth Jacobson, the fifth Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, for poetry workshops and readings.
Presented with support from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry
Dwelling in Possibility: A Poetry Workshop
with Richard Chess
Saturday, Sept 26, 2-3:30 pm
Location: CCA Conference Room
$30 per person
All levels welcome
Once a poem, at some point in the writing process, begins to come into focus, we devote
our time to sharpening the focus that has emerged. But, what might happen if we
resisted the urge to “finish” the poem? What if, instead, we paused and considered new
directions suggested by a line, a sentence, or a stanza–maybe even a syllable, vowel, or
consonant! –that point toward a different focus, a different vision for the poem, a vision
perhaps far from our original intentions? What might happen if we were to “dwell in
possibility,” as Emily Dickinson suggests? In this workshop, we’ll take Dickinson as our
guide. Grounded in a variety of contemplative practices, we’ll read a few poems by
others and, informed and inspired by those, we’ll draft our own poems. We’ll identify
new directions to explore, suggested by what we’ve already written. As we head in one
or more of these new directions, we will gain a sense of how our work can grow in ways
we may only discover by “dwelling in possibility”. Please bring your writing tools.
Richard Chess is the author of four books of poetry, including Love Nailed to the Doorpost
(University of Tampa Press 2017) and The Loneliest Monk (Orison Books, July 2026). His work
has been included in Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 and The Bloomsbury Anthology of
Contemporary American Jewish Poetry. He is a regular contributor to “Close Reading,” the blog
hosted by SLANT Books. He was a founding member of the board of Yetzirah: A Hearth for
Jewish Poetry. He also served on the board of Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center.
He is professor emeritus from the UNC Asheville, where, for 30 years, he directed UNC
Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies. www.richardchess.com
This program is supported by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry
Community Reading Series
Friday, September 25, 5-6:30pm
Free with suggested donation.
Richard Chess is the author of four books of poetry, including Love Nailed to the Doorpost (University of Tampa Press 2017). His fifth book, The Loneliest Monk, will be published by Orison Books in July 2026. His work has been included in Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 and The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary American Jewish Poetry. He is a regular contributor to “Close Reading,” the blog hosted by SLANT Books. He was a founding member of the board of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry. In recent years, he also served on the board of Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center. He is professor emeritus from the UNC Asheville, where, for 30 years, he directed UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies. You can find out more about him at his website: www.richardchess.com
Emily Hyland’s newest collection of poetry, My Wise Little Ghost, is forthcoming with Trio House Press in July 2026. Hyland is the author of Divorced Business Partners: A Love Story (Howling Bird Press, 2024) & EMILY: The Cookbook, (Ballantine Books, 2018). Her third collection, BREASTS, will be published by Cornerstone Press in 2027. Hyland is the eponymous co-founder of the international restaurant groups Pizza Loves Emily + Emmy Squared Pizza. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she writes & teaches at Yogasource, a beloved local studio that she co-owns & directs. emilyhyland.com / emmysquaredpizza.com / pizzalovesemily.com
Priyanka Kumar is the award-winning author of CONVERSATIONS WITH BIRDS and THE LIGHT BETWEEN APPLE TREES. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The
Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Orion, and Sierra. An internationally acclaimed naturalist and filmmaker, she has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Southern California and serves on the Advisory Council of the Leopold Writing Program. Her new book is THE GRASSLAND QUEEN.
Santana Shorty is a writer and poet from northern New Mexico. She received her BA from Stanford University and her MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Her work focuses on New Mexican landscape and culture, and multiracial upbringing and love. Her writing has been published in New Mexico Magazine, El Palacio Magazine, and in the anthology Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth from Torrey House Press. Currently, she is working on her first novel. She is a member of the Navajo Nation and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Intimate Immersion: Poetry Workshop with Elizabeth Jacobson
Thursdays, 4:30-6:30p
Sept 17 & 24, Oct. 1 & 8
Cost: $250 (for all four classes)
Location: CCA Conference Room
Class size limited to 8 participants
This fall, poet Elizabeth Jacobson is offering a new session of her popular workshop series Intimate Immersion. During this four-week in-person intensive, the focus is on generating new poems, critiquing each participant’s work, revising poems, and looking at elements of craft. Each meeting, participants are invited to bring a new poem (with copies for everyone) for workshop discussion. Since this is the first look, the process creates a deep, concentrated attention different from preparing critique notes ahead of time. Additionally, contemporary poems are provided as a catalyst for the following week’s writing prompt. This is an intimate, focused immersion to reinforce the writing practice and foster the evolution of new poems. No class fees can be refunded after two weeks prior to start date.
Elizabeth Jacobson was the fifth Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Her third collection of poems, “There Are as Many Songs in the World as Branches of Coral” is just out from Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press. Her previous book, “Not into the Blossoms and Not into the Air” won the New Measure Poetry Prize (FVE/Parlor Press, 2019) and the 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for both New Mexico Poetry and Best New Mexico Book. She is the reviews editor for the online literary journal Terrain.org.
This program is supported by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry
Community Reading Series
Saturday, October 3, 5–6:30pm
Free with suggested donation.
Please join CCA for this special poetry reading in the Studio Theater with Michele Bombardier and Miriam Sagan. Introductions will be made by Carol Moldaw.
Michele Bombardier’s new collection, Don’t Ask Me How I Know, was a runner-up for
the Albiso Prize and a finalist for the Washington Prize. Her debut collection, What We
Do, was a finalist for the Washington Book Award. Her poetry has been set to music and
performed at OPERA America and read on NPR. She served as the inaugural Poet
Laureate of Bainbridge Island and is the founder of Fishplate Poetry, leading workshops
and retreats to raise money for humanitarian aid.
Carol Moldaw is the author of seven books of poetry, including, most recently, Go
Figure (Four Way Books, 2024), and one novel, The Widening (Etruscan Books, 2008),
which will be reissued in 2028. The recipient of an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, a
Pushcart Prize, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, her poetry and essays
have been published widely in journals including American Poetry Review, The New
York Review of Books, Georgia Review, Poetry, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Yale
Review. She lives in Santa Fe, NM, and teaches privately.
Miriam Sagan is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. She is a
two-time winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards as well as a recipient of the
City of Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a New Mexico Literary
Arts Gratitude Award. She has been a writer in residence in four national parks, Yaddo,
MacDowell, Gullkistan in Iceland, Kura Studio in Japan, and a dozen more remote and
interesting places. She works with text and sculptural installation as part of the
mother/daughter creative team Maternal Mitochondria (with Isabel Winson-Sagan) in
venues ranging from RV parks to galleries. She founded and directed the creative
writing program at Santa Fe Community College until her retirement.
