Brave Poets

I'm looking for and therefore creating a group of female-identified (all inclusive) or nonbinary folks (like me) (any race, religion, orientation, ability, ethnicity, etc) who want to critique each other's work in a supportive manner. I have run several writing groups and critique groups (on and off over the past 30+ years). I teach for the Dramatists Guild Institute (new plays, mostly structure), and I've participated in several Authors Publish groups and private (for pay) groups run by different poets. I have also spent time in the Iowa Writers Workshop and have an MFA from the Iowa Theatre Department where I spent a lot of time in workshops critiquing and being critiqued. I strongly believe that critique should never be a gun-sport. Blood should never be shed. And I know that there are ways to let each poet get the critique they need/want. I want to work with published poets at or around my "level." I'm working on but haven't yet published a chapbook, but I've published about 20 different poems in different journals. My duotrope stat is currently 17% - not bragging, maybe I am going for easier journals? (Mersey, Wild Greens, AntiHeroin Chic, Toyon, Gigantic Sequins, Oberon, Queerlings, Chaotic Merge, etc) I'm happy to host an online Zoom weekly to discuss a poem each week by up to 6 poets (including me). A Tuesday Evening at 7pm, Eastern Time (NYC) works for me. 

If you are already publishing poems in lit mags, and you are looking for a group to give you feedback and publishing support, I am starting a group that will meet Tuesday evenings, weekly, even though not everyone will come weekly. I am hoping enough of us will gather each week to offer support to each other, around 6 people/week. So I’m opening the group to more members. We will be working toward getting our words into the world, creating chapbooks and/or full-length manuscripts. I want folks who are social justice minded, inclusive of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+, and open to a group of female and nonbinary folks of all ages, abilities (spoonies welcome) and neuroaffirming (that means we’re inclusive of all neurotypes). If you know of a poet who might be interested, please forward this to them. If you are interested, send me an email at emmagoldmansherman at gmail dot com. Thank you!