Self-Guided Courses
Gateways to accessing your creative treasure trove.
Tending the Heart
How do we keep the heart open to the world in such difficult and challenging times? How do we, as writers and human beings, welcome all that arises in our lives?
This 6-session journey will draw on the experience and wisdom of some of our country’s most renowned writers and poets to explore how we tend the heart of creativity and spiritual practice.
With guest poets include Jacqueline Suskin, Tyree Daye, Gregory Orr, Richard Blanco, Koshin Paley Ellison and Jane Hirshfield.
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Wisdom of the Body
This 6-session journey explores creativity as a spiritual, embodied practice. We'll look at writing through the lens of the body through conversation, poetry, and writing prompts crafted to help us feel more inspired, and find joy in the gaps and pauses of our often crowded lives. Join us in taking a breath and feeling our way back into the joy and being of our physical selves.
With Guest Poets: Ross Gay, Nikita Gill, Mark Nepo, Kai Coggin, Barbara Crooker, and Leila Chatti
Learn MoreSacred Everyday
In this six-session series, James and Danusha explore writing, creativity, and the sacred contained in the moments of our everyday lives.
With Guest Poets: January Gill O'Neil, Dorianne Laux, Kim Rosen, Kelli Russell Agodon, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Natalie Goldberg
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Voices of Nature
This 6-session journey explores how the voices of nature weave with our own daily lives. For each session, Danusha and James share work by guest poets, including poems and prompts, so that together we can absorb the wisdom of visionaries, poets, and healers to bring ourselves more deeply into relationship with each other and with the power and beauty of this rich planet we share.
With Guest Poets: Ada Limón, Mark Nepo, Camille Dungy, Naomi Shihab Nye, Kimberly Blaeser, and Nickole Brown
Learn MoreThe Blessing of the Ordinary
In this six-session series, James and Danusha look at poetry as a tool for living a better life, and a practice of seeing. We discuss what Mark Nepo has called “the blessing of the ordinary,” sharing an abundance of poems, and discussing craft and technique with some of our most-accomplished poets.
With Guest Poets: Carolyn Forché, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Maggie Smith, Angela Narciso-Torres, Kim Stafford, and Laure-Anne Bosselaar
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Our Mineral Knowledges
In this six-session series, James and Danusha talk about writing as both ritual and mindfulness practice, bringing us all back to the source. We use poetry as an entry point into gratitude and hope, and as a cornerstone of resilience during these difficult and trying times. Whether you are a writer or not, you’re sure to come away from these heartening talks with a greater willingness to make space for joy and connection.
With Guest Poets: Naomi Shihab Nye, Ellen Bass, Jane Hirshfield, Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar, Nickole Brown, and Ross Gay
Learn More"Your session is one of the very few that I’ve attended online that holds the kind of quietude that in-person events do.”
— Nickole Brown
Additional Information
Self-Guided Offerings include previously recorded 6-session poetry courses.
Each session is two hours in length and begins with a talk with that week’s featured poet, followed by a discussion with Danusha and James, who read poems, offer gateways into accessing your own creative treasure troves, and share accompanying prompts.
During each class, they answer questions from participants, and give further insights into the practice of presence in our lives and on the page.
Each session includes a video recording, downloadable audio file and documents with poems, prompts and resources, many of which are shared and discussed during the class.
These series were previously presented on Zoom.
