What happens when inherited poetic forms don’t quite fit? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how queer poets have broken, reshaped, and reinvented traditional structures—and then we’ll build our own. We’ll begin by looking at a few short examples of “queered” forms: the disrupted sonnet, the fractured ghazal, and the anti-pantoum. From there, we’ll move into generative writing, where you’ll learn to identify the rules that liberate rather than confine. Together, we’ll ask: What rhythm matches the way you love? What repetition honors your chosen family? What stanza break mirrors your own transitions?
By the end of the session, you’ll leave with a draft of an original poem and a personally invented form (complete with your own “rules”) that you can return to again and again. No formal poetry experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to play. Open to all queer writers and creatives, whether you’ve written one poem or one hundred.
This craft seminar is part of the 2026 Queer Creatives Fest. Queer Creatives Fest is open to writers of all genres and creatives of all types who identify as members of LGBTQIA+ communities. We also welcome folks who are questioning their gender or sexual orientation and those who are in solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities. Our intention is to center LGBTQIA+ people at the Fest.
