2026 Adult Workshop Offerings
CELEBRATING 34 YEARS
Workshops at Bright Hill
Interim Critique Group
The Bright Hill Literary Press and Center’s Interim Poetry Workshop is a place where poets gather to read and share their new or revised writing with the purpose of receiving positive and constructive criticism about their poems. The program’s intent is to help encourage stronger poems and strengthen writing skills. All of this will be done in a warm and supportive environment via Zoom. In addition to giving a voice to poets’ works and a platform to learn, prompts will be provided each week; however, the use of those prompts is optional.
There may also be at least one tiny desk reading from a poet outside our membership.
Mondays, January 5 – March 9
7-9 pm on Zoom
The Pre-Workshop Procedure:
Participants will submit work for review via a Google folder (link to be sent later).
One week the workshop will focus on six participants (Group A), according to a schedule to be set up at a later date. The next week, the other six participants (Group B) will share their work. The dates will be listed at the end of this email. Each participant will receive between 15-20 minutes of undivided attention (reading time included).
Participants will submit their work for review for the week they are scheduled by Sunday (Monday by noon, at the latest) to give members a chance to read and formulate thoughts about the work. If a poet cannot submit that week, they should trade with someone scheduled for the following week or be skipped in the rotation. We will only be able to provide quality time to six poets each week.
Poems should be titled in the folder in the following format: Poem title–Poet Name
Poets should generally keep their work to 1-2 pages in length (or approximately 2-3 minutes of reading). If poets submit longer poems, they should note that reading time will cut into the 15-20 minutes of feedback allotted per poet.
Note: All of these time constraints are only fair and thoughtful of others’ time during and outside the workshop.
The Workshop Format:
After any announcements:
Poet will read their work (Zoom recording will begin), and then the poet will remain silent for the discussion of the poem.
Members will provide points of praise for the work.
Members will offer warm, constructive criticism and discussion of the work.
All of this will be followed by optional words from the poet–this is where the poet may ask particular focus questions of the group, etc. if needed.
After all the scheduled poets read and members respond:
Weekly prompts and mentor texts will be provided to serve as inspiration. Poets may volunteer for this if they are so inclined.
Seeing Things 15
An Intensive Poetry Workshop Taught By Robert Bensen
Mondays, March 16 – May 18
7-9 pm on Zoom
The Seeing Things Poetry Workshop will begin its 15th season on March 16 and meet each Monday evening on ZOOM from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Many members are from the Oneonta area, but some have participated from California, Washington DC, Philadelphia, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.
Weekly we enjoy the camaraderie of poets who are devoted to their craft and to each other. We read and comment on (and sometimes revise) each other’s new work, which workshop members are invited to contribute every other week, on an alternating schedule. Poems may be based on ideas generated by the group or offered by the director. The purpose of critique is to show the poet how a concerned, informed audience reads his or her poem, pointing out what works well and what might benefit from revision. Often we suggest revision at the moment. We want to motivate the poet to take the next step toward realizing the poem’s vision and expression.
We may invite a poet or two to give a 20-minute Tiny Desk Reading. We’ll be reading classic as well as contemporary poems to enlarge our ideas for what our own poems can accomplish. We will celebrate each other’s publications and look for publishing opportunities. We will talk about—and practice—the art of reading aloud to audiences, whenever we get the chance.
During the workshop, poems will be screen-shared on ZOOM. To make that possible, by 12:00 noon each Monday, poems for the evening need to be uploaded to the week’s Googledocs folder. Members should read the poems during the afternoon to facilitate comments during the workshop. We ask the poem’s author to read the piece, then hear the discussion of the poem without intervening, letting the workshop members register their thoughts, ask their questions, puzzle out in conversation any issues they perceive. All in all, everyone learns from one another.
The workshop conductor Robert Bensen directed the writing programs at Hartwick College from 1978-2017. His seventh book of poems is What Lightning Spoke: New & Selected Poems (2022). Poems and essays have appeared in many journals, such as The Paris Review, Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, Native Realities, Jamaica Journal, AGNI, Akwe:kon, Poetry Wales, Ploughshares, and many others. His writing has earned awards and fellowships from the NEA, NEH, Newberry Library, NYSCA, Harvard University, NY State Fair, and elsewhere. He has conducted the Seeing Things Poetry Workshop at Bright Hill Press and Literary Center since 2019. More info @ www.RobertBensen.com
Adult Workshop Payments
2025 Poetry Workshops are virtual, on Zoom.
Previous Workshops
The Winter 2025 Interim Critique Group is full.
Seeing Things 13
An Intensive Poetry Workshop Taught By Robert Bensen
Mondays, March 17- May 19
7-9 pm on Zoom
to pre-register: send email to info@brighthillpress.org
The Seeing Things Poetry Workshop will begin its 13th season on March 17 and meet each Monday evening on ZOOM from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Many members are from the Oneonta area, but some have participated from California, Washington DC, Philadelphia, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.
Weekly we enjoy the camaraderie of poets who are devoted to their craft and to each other. We read and comment on (and sometimes revise) each other’s new work, which workshop members are invited to contribute every other week, on an alternating schedule. Poems may be based on ideas generated by the group or offered by the director. The purpose of critique is to show the poet how a concerned, informed audience reads his or her poem, pointing out what works well and what might benefit from revision. Often we suggest revision at the moment. We want to motivate the poet to take the next step toward realizing the poem’s vision and expression.
We may invite a poet or two to give a 20-minute Tiny Desk Reading. We’ll be reading classic as well as contemporary poems to enlarge our ideas for what our own poems can accomplish. We will celebrate each other’s publications and look for publishing opportunities. We will talk about—and practice—the art of reading aloud to audiences, whenever we get the chance.
During the workshop, poems will be screen-shared on ZOOM. To make that possible, by 12:00 noon each Monday, poems for the evening need to be uploaded to the week’s Googledocs folder. Members should read the poems during the afternoon to facilitate comments during the workshop. We ask the poem’s author to read the piece, then hear the discussion of the poem without intervening, letting the workshop members register their thoughts, ask their questions, puzzle out in conversation any issues they perceive. All in all, everyone learns from one another.
The workshop conductor Robert Bensen directed the writing programs at Hartwick College from 1978-2017. His seventh book of poems is What Lightning Spoke: New & Selected Poems (2022). Poems and essays have appeared in many journals, such as The Paris Review, Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, Native Realities, Jamaica Journal, AGNI, Akwe:kon, Poetry Wales, Ploughshares, and many others. His writing has earned awards and fellowships from the NEA, NEH, Newberry Library, NYSCA, Harvard University, NY State Fair, and elsewhere. He has conducted the Seeing Things Poetry Workshop at Bright Hill Press and Literary Center since 2019. More info @ www.RobertBensen.com
Sharon Ruetenik June 15, 22, 29, 1-4pm
The list poem is a catalog of items, events, or emotional states tied together by a unifying title. It weaves together both the tangible and the abstract. Writing a list poem is an enjoyable way of gathering imagery. It requires logical arrangement, keen observation of both internal and external realities. And a solid thematic thread. At the same time because it is a simple form, it allows for a freedom of expression based on personal reflection. It is a way to communicate both personal and universal truths.
In our workshop, we will begin by studying “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szmborska as a template for our own work. Other samples of this form will include poems by Major Jackson, Colette Inez, Matthew Dickman, Yusef Komunyaka, and Nancy Willard.
This class is useful for emerging and experienced poets. Time will be provided for writing and sharing our work. Prompts will be suggested.
Classes will be held IN PERSON at Bright Hill on three consecutive Sunday afternoons, June 15, 22, and 29, from 1-4.
Sharon Ruetenik, poet and educator, has published in several anthologies and journals, most recently “Iconoclast” and “Evening Street Review”. Her chapbook The Wooden Bowl illustrates the role of women from Eve to Dorothy. Ruetenik was awarded a fellowship at the Saltonstall Foundation and at Platte Clove. She has taught poetry classes at SUNY Delhi, for Writers in the Mountains and functioned as a facilitator for the New York Council of the Humanities directing discussions on such diverse subjects as WWI, the Muslim Journey, and A History of Aging. Ruetenik has read her work at various venues in the region.
Sharon Ruetenik has an abiding interest in What Ifs and a natural proclivity for incongruities evidenced by her love for mob movies and all things Victorian. She lives in Delhi NY with her family.
Georgia Popoff – June 16-July 21, 7-9pm
By looking at traditional Japanese poetic forms and the ways they have been influenced and changed over time and across cultures, we will examine further the nuances, adaptations, and even disruptions of Japanese forms. We will create a renga over the length of the course and create new work from weekly prompts, exercises, and examples from contemporary poetry.
Georgia A. Popoff is a writer, editor, arts-in-education specialist, and a program coordinator for the YMCA of Central NY’s Writers Voice, where she teaches poetry and creative nonfiction. Her fourth collection of poetry, Psychometry, released in late 2019 by Tiger Bark Press, was a finalist for Utica College’s Eugene Nassar Poetry Prize and the CNY Book Award for Poetry. Tiger Bark Press released her fifth collection, Living with Haints in spring 2024. In 2022, Georgia was named Poet Laureate of Onondaga County for a 3-year term of service, and received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets in 2024. She is the acquisitions editor for the University of Michigan Press Under Discussion book series on contemporary poets.
For more information and for links to purchase books, visit www.georgiapopoff.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, and on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter: @gappoet.
Georgia Popoff – July 28-September 1, 7-9pm
Let summer fuel your creative spark. This generative course will provide prompts and exercises to perk memory and imagination. In-class writing time, weekly craft conversations drawn from “burning questions” and “aha moments” regarding the writer’s life and process, and sharing of work created in class comprise the elements of this class.
This workshop is cross-genre with poetry and creative nonfiction, if there are writers for whom it would be of interest.
Georgia A. Popoff is a writer, editor, arts-in-education specialist, and a program coordinator for the YMCA of Central NY’s Writers Voice, where she teaches poetry and creative nonfiction. Her fourth collection of poetry, Psychometry, released in late 2019 by Tiger Bark Press, was a finalist for Utica College’s Eugene Nassar Poetry Prize and the CNY Book Award for Poetry. Tiger Bark Press released her fifth collection, Living with Haints in spring 2024. In 2022, Georgia was named Poet Laureate of Onondaga County for a 3-year term of service, and received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets in 2024. She is the acquisitions editor for the University of Michigan Press Under Discussion book series on contemporary poets.
For more information and for links to purchase books, visit www.georgiapopoff.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, and on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter: @gappoet.