ABOUT THE VIRTUAL WORKSHOP
“Curative violence occurs when cure … frames the presence of disability as a problem and ends up destroying the subject in the curative process.” —Eunjung Kim
“A disability justice framework understands that all bodies are unique and essential, that all bodies have strengths and needs that must be met.” —Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
“Every time I write a poem, I make a little body.” —Oliver Baez Bendorf
The standard academic creative writing workshop is rife with ableist and capitalist nomenclature. The mute author, the language not strong enough, the piece not working. “Lyrical ableism” describes the ways in which this workshop model seeks to flatten, sterilize, and depersonalize the poem—and often by extension, the poet. This is a workshop on revising poems through the lens of accessibility. In our workshop, we will understand poets as the care workers of our poems. We will center the poem as a body, which can therefore be disabled, and wonderfully so. Through generative writing, analysis, and guided revision, we will break away from curatively trying to fix our poems and instead learn to offer access to those weaker, disabled parts.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Rob Macaisa Colgate (he/she/they) is the author of the poetry collection “Hardly Creatures” (Tin House, 2025), winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award and long-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the verse drama “My Love Is Water” (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2025). His forthcoming multimedia verse novel “The Vice of Our Jaws” (Tin House, 2027) won the 2026 Creative Capital Award. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts, 2024 Ruth Lilly, and 2023 Fulbright fellow, he serves as the managing poetry editor at Foglifter and lives in Chicago.
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. Zoom auto-captions will be provided. Written versions of poem prompts and poems used for discussion will be provided via screen share, the chat, or links.
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, February 18, 2027. 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.