With support from the Poetry Foundation, Cave Canem’s 2023 Regional Workshops are now available to participants outside of New York City.

This year, Spring 2023 workshops will take place in Montgomery, Alabama; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and of course, at the Cave Canem headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.  Fall 2023 workshops will take place in Oakland, California; Greenville, South Carolina; and Houston, Texas.

Regional workshops are in-person, tuition-free, and free to apply. To be considered, please submit a cover letter and five original poems to our Submittable.

Regional Workshop (Alabama): “The Self as Inspiration:” Looking Inward to Explore the Larger World with Jacqueline Trimble
March 9th – May 11th
Thursdays, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (CDT) | Public Reading May 8th
Armory Learning Arts Center
1010 Forest Ave

Visit our Submittable Page to Apply by February 6, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Submissions to this workshop are free and open to Black Montgomery residents.  

Applications close on February 6th at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

Jacqueline Trimble lives and writes in Montgomery, Alabama. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and an Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, including Poetry, The Offing, and Poet Lore, and has also been featured by Poetry Daily. Trimble’s writing has been anthologized in The Night’s Magician, Southern Writers on Writing, and most recently, The Beautiful: Poets Reimagine America. She has also written 13 episodes of Die Testament, a South African soap opera. Her debut poetry collection, American Happiness, was named the Best Book of 2016 by Seven Sisters Book Awards and won the Balcones Poetry Prize. Her latest collection, How to Survive the Apocalypse, was published in 2022. Trimble is a Professor of English and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University. 

Regional Workshops (Minnesota): “Laboratory Poetics” with Danez Smith
March 15th – May 17th
Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (CDT) | Public Reading May 17th
Loft Literary Center
1011 Washington Avenue South

Visit our Submittable to apply by February 12th at 11:59 p.m. EST

Open to Black Minneapolis residents.  

Applications close on February 12th at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

Danez Smith is the author of three collections, including Homie and Don’t Call Us Dead. For their work, Danez won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critic Circle Award, and the National Book Award. Danez’s poetry and prose has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, Best American Poetry, and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Danez is a member of the Dark Noise Collective. Former co-host of the Webby-nominated podcast VS (Versus), they live in Minneapolis near their people.

Regional Workshop (New York City): “LOVE, Above All Things” with Falú
March 22nd – May 24th
Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (EST) | Public Reading May 24th
Cave Canem
20 Jay Street, 310A, Brooklyn, New York 11201

Visit our Submittable to apply by February 19th at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Open to Black New York City residents.

Applications close on February 19th at 11:59 p.m. EST.

A graduate of Pratt’s MFA Writing in Activism Program and a Master of Social Work student at Stony Brook University, Falú works as a Social Worker, as well as a traveling teaching artist. An International Slam Champion and Cave Canem Fellow, she has been published in several anthologies and uses her writing as activism work for several organizations. Falú’s other projects include “Niggas Die Everyday,” an art gallery and exhibit she co-curated, and her one-woman show turned writing workshop, “Love, Above All Things.” She is a mother of two, a loyal Brooklynite, and believes in fashion. Seriously.

These programs are supported by the Poetry Foundation.