A Poetry by the Sea Conference Workshop with Melissa Balmain
This May at Poetry by the Sea, we’re delighted to have Melissa Balmain, the Editor-in-Chief of Light and author of four acclaimed books, leading our first-ever workshop on how to be more prolific: “Getting Your Butt in the Chair.” We invited her to say a few words about it.
This morning when you woke up, did you…
- Doomscroll?
- Do all the New York Times puzzles, then doomscroll?
- Write a poem?
Too often, I admit, I’d have to say “b.” Which might make you wonder: How can this person be leading a workshop on productivity? The answer is that I’ve been preparing for it a long time—as much for my own sake as anyone else’s.
For years, I’ve made a habit of buttonholing prolific writers. I’ve talked with poets, novelists, humorists, and nonfiction authors who write more in a week than many of us do in a year—and they’ve told me how they do it.
Their methods dovetail with what I’ve learned about productivity through my own work. While editing Light and teaching at the U. of Rochester, I’ve seen how certain prompts and other sources of inspiration can send writers racing to their laptops. As a poet and prose writer, I’ve seen my own output jump whenever I’ve tried such prompts and sources myself, and/or followed tips from the aforementioned prolific writers. (It’s a bit shocking, in fact, to realize just how many of my poems and pieces wouldn’t have happened without such help.)
Which brings me back to “Getting Your Butt in the Chair.” Along with learning more about you and your work, I’m excited to share all the ideas I’ve gathered and tested, and hear about yours. Together, we can overcome fear, inertia, and procrastination, and maybe even turn doomscrolling and Wordle into muses.
Read more about Melissa’s Workshop
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Melissa Balmain edits Light, North America’s longest-running journal of comic verse, and has taught writing seminars for 16 years at the University of Rochester. Her poems and prose have appeared in The American Bystander, Crab Orchard Review, Ecotone, The Hopkins Review, Literary Matters, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Nimrod, Poetry Daily, and Rattle. Her latest poetry collection is Satan Talks to His Therapist (Paul Dry Books). Her favorite anecdote about getting one’s butt in the chair involves a famous writer, leisure wear, and light bondage. Details available by the sea.