Study Groups
Soapstone offers a program of six study groups each year on women writers. People of all genders and identities are welcome. Scholarships are available.
To register for a study group send an email to soapstonewriting@gmail.com, and once you receive a reply saying there is room in the group, we'll ask for payment through Zelle, or, if you prefer, a check made out to Soapstone, 622 SE 29th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214.
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Summer/Fall 2024
Reading Contemporary Poetry
Led by Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar
Four sessions, 3 hours each, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST
Saturday, August 3: Dorianne Laux on Belle Waring, Anne Marie Macari and Deborah Digges
Saturday, August 10: Joseph Millar on Ruth Stone and Sharon Olds
Saturday, August 17: Joseph Millar on Ruth Stone and Sharon Olds
Saturday, August 24: Dorianne Laux on Susanne Cleary, Mary Campbell, Phillils Levin
via Zoom
$75, scholarships available
Limited to 16 participants
In alternating weeks, we will share and discuss a host of women poets such as the great Sharon Olds and Ruth Stone, as well as poets you may not yet be familiar with such as Belle Waring, Deborah Digges, and Suzanne Cleary, among others. All of these poets have something to say, and to teach us about life and the art of poetry. We will delve deeply into particular poems looking at themes, subjects, craft, and voice. Two or three books will be required (TBA). PDFs will be provided for poems not in the assigned books.
Dorianne Laux’s poetry collections include the Pulitzer Prize finalist Only As the Day Is Long. She received the Paterson Poetry Prize and is a founding faculty member of Pacific University's low-residency MFA program. She lives in Richmond, California. Her new poetry collection, Life on Earth is just out. “With this spellbinding seventh collection...Laux...brings to life the simple pleasures and small agonies of human existence...[she] makes the quotidian feel monumental in a way that is uniquely her own.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Joseph Millar is the author of Overtime, Fortune, Blue Rust, Kingdom, and Dark Harvest. His work has won a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches
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Ellen Waterston will lead a group focusing on a writer to be announced
six sessions, 2 hours each, 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. PST
Saturdays, September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5 and 19
10 a.m.- 12 p.m. PST
via Zoom
$75, scholarships available
Limited to 16 participants
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Reading Marie Howe, led by Andrea Hollander
Five Saturday mornings: 9:30 am to noon (PST)
November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
via Zoom
$75, scholarships available
Limited to 16 participants
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For a list of past study groups go to Previous Study Groups