Workshop: Poetry Manuscript Circle, led by poet and filmmaker KP Kaszubowski *ONLINE on Zoom*

Saturdays, Feb. 1–Mar. 1 | 1–4:30 pm CST

1 Introduction Call and 4 Feedback Calls | $300 

The Poetry Manuscript Circle offers each participant focused and affirming feedback, supportive community, and the opportunity to develop careful and caring writing critique skills. This workshop is meant to create a container outside of academia for working writers to engage deeply with their peers’ work, and to receive guidance before their next step in the revision process for a collection of poetry.

This workshop will consist of 5 live Zoom calls, each one between 2–3.5 hours, as well as weekly manuscript reading and note-taking. Each week the circle will read and comment on 2 poetry manuscripts. This manuscript circle is limited to 8 participants and open to all writers, regardless of previous publishing record. All calls will take place over Zoom.

Who this workshop is for:

Poets with full-length or chapbook manuscripts ready for peer feedback.
Poets seeking clarity on manuscripts ready for the next step in the revision process.
Poets seeking developmental feedback from other poets.
Poets interested in supporting other poets’ manuscript journeys.
Poets looking for a non-academic workshop environment.
Poets who benefit from writer-centered workshopping techniques.

Who this workshop is not a good fit for:

Writers whose manuscripts are mostly written in prose.
Writers looking for corrective or line edits.
Writers looking for advice on publishing their work.
Writers who feel their manuscripts are complete and do not need feedback at this point in time.
Writers seeking feedback on individual poems.
Writers who want to workshop performance aspects of their writing.

KP Kaszubowski is a multi-disciplinary creator who focuses on the long format: full-length and chapbook poetry collections, feature length films, and full-length plays.  She’s guided dozens of creatives and writers through to the end of their long term projects.  In the past few years, one of her greatest joys has been hosting Manuscript Calls and Thesis Showers (like a baby shower but for poetry MFA candidates) for writer-centered feedback and guidance.

Her debut poetry collection somnieeee was published in 2019 by Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, and her debut feature film Ringolevio premiered in 2020 at Dances With Films in Los Angeles. As producer, her first feature-length documentary My First and Last Film (director: Tracey Thomas) premiered in 2019. Her previous poetry has been published (sometimes as Kristin Peterson) by TriQuarterly, Biscuit Hill, pitymilk press, ANMLY, Great Lakes Review, dancing girl press, Juked, Flag + Void, ICHNOS, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing through Eastern Washington University in 2023. She lives close enough to the Lake to pretend she can hear it. When she lived in Spokane, she could hear Lake Michigan there too.

Zoom Schedule:

The Poetry Manuscript Circle will meet live on Zoom for 5 calls on the following dates:

• February 1
• February 8
• February 15
• February 22
• March 1

All live calls will take place from 1—4:30 pm CST.  

Further Details:

• Poetry manuscripts should be primarily in English and written by the participant. Translated and collaborative works will not be accepted for this first session.
• Each call will focus on 2 participants’ manuscripts.
• Every participant is expected to have read the manuscripts thoroughly and to have written a manuscript response before the call.  These manuscript responses can take many forms, and this will be discussed in the introduction call.

Application Guidelines: Winter Session 2025

This Poetry Manuscript Circle is open to everyone – whether they have published poetry or not.

Applicants must be available for the entirety of the dates and times and are expected to commit their energy to close reading and note-giving of each of their peer participants’ manuscripts throughout the session.

Application deadline is Jan. 15 at 11:59 pm CST.

Applicants will be notified by January 18, by the end of the day.  

TO APPLY:

Click the button below to apply using our online form.

You will be asked to submit the current draft of your manuscript. This is not the manuscript that will be workshopped.  

FAQ

What if I cannot attend each live Zoom call?  

Each participant is asked to write a manuscript response to be sent directly to the writer before the Zoom call.  Manuscript response examples will be demonstrated in the Introduction Call.  If you are not able to attend a Zoom call for any reason, please be sure to send your manuscript response as close to the Zoom call date as possible for the benefit of the spotlighted writer.

What if my manuscript is too long or too short?

This Poetry Manuscript Circle does not have strict page length guidelines. 

What if my manuscript contains private information, or sensitive content?

If your manuscript contains sensitive content, please note so in your Google Form application.  Before your work is discussed, the workshop guide will notify the other participants of appropriate content warnings.

If your manuscript contains private information, it is best to omit or redact this information before the cohort members receive your manuscript for reading.  If you would like the cohort to agree to confidentiality, we will discuss this during the Introduction Session.