What: Writing Queer Joy – Virtual Workshop, led by Amie Whittemore
Where: Online via Zoom
When: Saturday, November 8, 2025, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. CST
Cost for Workshop: $30 for MWC Members, $40 for non-MWC Members. Scholarships available for students, veterans, and those with financial need – contact MWC for more information
Contact: Ryan Collins: ryan.collins@mwcqc.org | 309-732-7330
Audience: Writers of all levels, age 16+
The Midwest Writing Center is proud to present a poetry workshop from prolific poet and experienced teacher Amie Whittemore that helps writers of all levels write queer joy.
Workshop Description: Writing Queer Joy
Joy is one of the most powerful acts of resistance we can harness. It nourishes us, connects us with others and with nature, and reminds us why we must fight oppressive systems that seek to wear us out and shut us down. Together we’ll read poems and prose about queer joy then write and share our own queer joy poems together.
Instructor Bio:
Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of four poetry collections, most recently the chapbook Hesitation Waltz (Midwest Writing Center). She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Her poems have won multiple awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize, and her writing has appeared in Blackbird, Colorado Review, Terrain.org, Pleiades, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University.
Instructor website: https://www.facebook.com/GwendolynAHart
This workshop is made possible thanks to the support of the Illinois Arts Council Agency