ABOUT THE IN-PERSON WORKSHOP
French philosophers Edgar Morin and Anne-Brigitte Kern coined the term “polycrisis” in 1993 to describe a state of overlapping “shocks,” ruptures, catastrophes. But what does it mean today to write in an age of the polycrisis where climate catastrophe, colonial violence, political unrest, economic collapse, and more might overwhelm our desire to make? To create. In this generative workshop, we will explore lyric instability: work that grapples with the uncertainty wrought by crisis, work that enacts instability not as a problem to solve but as a storytelling tool, and the question of how we can write from within a state of contradiction and collapse, rather than forcing a state of resolution. We’ll look at how instability opens up formal possibility in the poetic swerve, the unreliable narrator, the slipperiness of imperfect repetition. And we will consider what some of these tools can do to help us resist reductive narratives or oversimplified explorations of grief and uncertainty. The second half of this workshop will involve generative work geared at unsettling our usual language-making habits.
**Please note: This is an in-person workshop in Washington, D.C., at American Poetry Museum**
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
A.D. Lauren-Abunassar is a Palestinian American writer, poet, and journalist. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Narrative, Rattle, Prairie Schooner, Boulevard, and elsewhere. Her first book, “Coriolis” (University of Arkansas Press, 2023), was the winner of the 2023 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. Lauren-Abunassar was also the winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Lyric Poetry Award in 2026. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, she has received additional fellowships from Bread Loaf, the McCormack Center, Vermont Studio Center, the Stadler Center, and other institutions.
ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility is a core value for Split this Rock. We strive to provide programs, materials, and communications that allow people within the disability community to engage fully.
The venue is wheelchair accessible. Free masks are provided. We encourage attendees to wear a mask to keep the space safe and accessible for all participants and as a practice of community care. An air purifier will be running during the workshop. Hard copies of poems and prompts used for discussion are provided.
Let us know of any accessibility questions or accommodation requests via the workshop registration form or by emailing [email protected] with “ACCESS REQUEST” in the subject line by Thursday, October 22. Given our ongoing funding challenges, we cannot promise accessibility services, but will do our best to provide accommodations.
ABOUT SPLIT THIS ROCK
Split this Rock is the only national organization with a mission to integrate poetry and social justice. We materially support poets who are often excluded and underrepresented in the literary landscape, particularly those who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled or chronically ill, and/or working class. With strong commitments to racial, gender, economic, and disability justice, we work to expand the horizons of inclusion and assert the transformative power of language to bear witness to injustice and provoke social change. We believe poetry acts as an agent for change by revealing the diversity and complexity of human experience, reflecting on daily lives and struggles, considering personal and social responsibility, and envisioning a better world. Learn more: splitthisrock.org.