Poet and essayist Tess Taylor, who wrote much of her acclaimed book THE FORAGE HOUSE in residence at Monticello, returns to Charlottesville to lead writers in a workshop about engaging artifacts, archaelogy and history in crafting poems. Our morning will start with a look at model poems built around historic artifacts (including poems by Natasha Trethewey, Kevin Young, and Rachel Richardson), and then will give participants a chance for a private tour and reflective time in James Monroe’s Ash Lawn Highland during the hours before it opens, so each writer can contemplate their own history poem. The morning concludes with a writing workshop using artifacts from Ash Lawn’s collections as inspiration, subject, or starting point. The event will be followed by lunch, a brief reading by Tess, and a question and answer session.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’][/author_image] [author_info]Content goes hereTESS TAYLOR’s chapbook The Misremembered World was selected by Eavan Boland and published by the Poetry Society of America. Her work has appeared in TheAtlantic, Boston Review, Harvard Review, The Times Literary Supplement, and The New Yorker. The San Francisco Chronicle called her first book, THE FORAGE HOUSE,“stunning” and it was a finalist for the Believer Poetry Award. Tess chairs the poetry committee of the National Book Critics Circle, is currently the on-air poetry reviewer for NPR’s All Things Considered, and was most recently visiting professor of English and creative writing at Whittier College. Her second book WORK & DAYS is due out in 2017.[/author_info] [/author]