“Poetry & Performance: Finding the Singer Within” with Keith Flynn
July 13, 1:00–4:00
In-person, Manheimer Room, UNC Asheville Reuter Center
Learn to unlock the rhythmic architecture, drama, and music that are the integral aspects of a memorable performance with one of the country’s finest poetic performers! This workshop will offer exercises to draw out the rhythm in the public delivery of your poems and will highlight bedrock techniques of public speaking. You’ll practice strategies for interpreting the complex ideas of a poem for an audience and will receive guidance in finding the hidden singer within. Practical topics will include microphone techniques, breathing exercises, posture, projection, and much more. This workshop is designed to benefit the beginner as well as the accomplished writer and arm each writer with a bag of tricks to charm every crowd they encounter.
Each participant will bring two pieces to share, and will receive performance feedback from the instructor and the group. Any work deemed exemplary will be considered for publication in The Asheville Poetry Review.
About the Instructor
Keith Flynn is the award-winning author of eight books, including six collections of poetry: most recently Colony Collapse Disorder (Wings Press, 2013) and The Skin of Meaning (Red Hen Press, 2020), and two collections of essays, entitled The Rhythm Method, Razzmatazz and Memory: How To Make Your Poetry Swing(Writer’s Digest Books, 2007), and Prosperity Gospel: Portraits of the Great Recession (RedHawk Publications, 2021). From 1984-1999, he was lyricist and lead singer for the nationally acclaimed rock band The Crystal Zoo, which produced three albums: Swimming Through Lake Eerie, Pouch, and the spoken-word and music compilation Nervous Splendor. His latest album is Keith Flynn & The Holy Men, LIVE at Diana Wortham Theatre. He is the Executive Director and producer of the TV and radio show, “LIVE at White Rock Hall,” (www.liveatwhiterockhall.com) and Animal Sounds Productions, both which create collaborations between writers and musicians in video and audio formats. Flynn is founder and managing editor of The Asheville Poetry Review, which began publishing in 1994.
Registration Information
- Cost:
- $75.00 – registration only
- $90.00 – registration + signed copy of Keith Flynn’s book The Rhythm Method, Razzmatazz and Memory: How To Make Your Poetry Swing
- Questions? Email ldanzis@unca.edu
Click To Register
“How to Write a True Happy Story in 2025” with Karen Tucker
Tuesdays, July 15-August 12
7:00-8:30pm ET
Online via Zoom
In this five-week online course led by UNC creative writing professor and author Karen Tucker, participants will read, write, and workshop short fiction that honors the fullest truth of the world we live in, while also focusing on scenes of comfort, happiness, and peace. You will examine published works in the first two meetings with accompanying generative exercises. The final three meetings will be workshop-driven, focusing on participant drafts and accompanying prompts for revision. Everyone will receive written feedback on their fiction and strategies for continuing to advance their craft.
About the Instructor
Karen Tucker is the author of the novel Bewilderness, which was selected as an Indie Next Pick, longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, shortlisted for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize, and chosen as a “Dazzling Debut” by the American Booksellers Association. Her short fiction can be found in The Yale Review, The Missouri Review, Boulevard, EPOCH, and Tin House, among other places. Essays and interviews can be found in Electric Literature, The Millions, The Rumpus, Hazlitt, Southern Review of Books, and elsewhere. Tucker’s awards include an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant for Emerging Writers, the George M. Harper Award for Creative Writing, the Jerome Stern Series Spotlight Award in fiction, a UNC Junior Faculty Development Award, and a PEO Scholar Award. Born and raised in North Carolina, she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction at UNC Chapel Hill.