Writing from the perspective of another requires great investment and momentous risk, all with no promise of reward. So why do poets continue to explore persona as a creative approach in our work?

In this workshop, Shirali, author of new poetry collection summonings, will present her scholarship on the persona spectrum, discussing “near” persona and “far” persona as ways of conceiving of our poems’ speakers. Through discussing the process of writing her own “near” and “far” persona poems in summonings, students will engage in philosophical exploration of the ethical stakes and creative potential inherent in stepping outside our own subjectivities. Students will then write the other, or write the self, or—better yet—collapse that distinction entirely.

Writers of all levels and genres are welcome!

About Raena Shirali

Raena Shirali is the author of two collections of poetry. Her first book, GILT (YesYes Books, 2017), won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and her second, summonings (Black Lawrence Press, 2022), won the 2021 Hudson Prize. Winner of a Pushcart Prize & a former Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University, Shirali is also the recipient of prizes and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Cosmonauts Avenue. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A Day, The Nation, The Rumpus, & elsewhere. She lives in Philly and serves on the board for BreakBread, a literacy project serving young writers.