Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Interested in poetry? You’ve come to the right place!

Each week, you’ll work in groups and on solo adventures as you play with different elements of craft and forms. We’ll have in-class brainstorming and writing sessions, as well as workshops to elicit feedback from the collective group.

This Poetry Workshop meets via Zoom twice a week from 10-11:50am on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Meet Your New Writing Mentor

Hi, I’m Jess!

I'm originally from Southern California. I went to school in the Bay area, and I taught at San Jose State University before moving to the Portland area. 

I have a Border Collie named Eevee (yes, after the Pokémon), and I am a notoriously slow reader. So, if you have imposter syndrome about being a writer/reader, do not fret! I am here with you.

Some of my favorite poets of the moment (because it is too hard to pick my all-time favorites) are as follows:

• Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
• Marilyn Chin
• Analicia Sotelo
• Ocean Vuong
• Saeed Jones
• Rupi Kaur
• Natalie Diaz
• Claudia Rankine
• Joy Harjo
• Juan Felipe Herrera
• Jimmy Santiago Baca
• Gary Soto
• Anne Sexton
• Sylvia Plath
• Emily Dickinson

This course will require steady internet access and a functioning laptop with a working video camera and microphone. You’ll be asked to turn on your video camera regularly during our Zoom sessions (oh, the horror).

You’ll be completing assignments in Zoom, D2L, and Google Docs. In terms of "old-school" tech, we'll also use paper and pencils to brainstorm and draft, which means I'll ask you to take photos of your various notes and sketches (smartphone cameras or access to a scanner are great for this step).