2025 Workshop Series
An Exchange of Gleams: Writing Through Sound and Association
Saturday, November 22, 2025. 12-1:30pm EST, on Zoom.
facilitated by Matthew Williams
In this workshop, we will work from French symbolist Stéphane Mallarmé’s premise that “the poet’s voice must be stilled and the initiative taken by the words themselves.” In other words, through a set of generative activities and exercises, we will try to step aside and allow language to guide us toward thought and emotion rather than allowing our thoughts and emotions to guide language. Our goal in our time together will not be to produce polished poems or even finished lines, but new seeds and wild ideas ready for planting. Poets at any stage of their writing life are encouraged to join.
Suggested: $25; Sliding scale $10-40* / REGISTRATION CLOSED
Matthew Williams is a teacher and poet from Sacramento, CA. He earned an MFA from NYU and received a Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship from The Community of Writers. His poems are forthcoming from or have appeared in Mantis, Blood Orange Review, The Banyan Review, California Quarterly, Clade Song, Gulf Stream Magazine, the Under Review, Qu Literary Magazine, Pangyrus, Switchback, Dryland, and as part of The Center for Book Arts Poetry Broadside Reading Series. He serves on the Board of Directors for No, Dear magazine and lives with his husband in Brooklyn where he teaches in New York City Public Schools.
*a note on sliding scale
Please pay what you can afford. If you own property or have secure, lucrative employment, we’d perhaps consider your resources abundant. If you are struggling to pay monthly bills, we’d perhaps consider your resources pressured. But ultimately, we rely on your own determination. For transparency, at least 70% of the funds paid for each course go to the facilitator, with the rest going to No, Dear to cover admin expenses and to support our publications and readings. We always reserve a few comped spots for each workshop. Email us at nodearmagazine at gmail if you’re interested.