It all began at a wooden table in an artist studio beside an urban creek in Traverse City, Michigan. There was red wine, enough chairs, mutual fondness. For two years, we met every Tuesday night for Poetry Boot Camp, an outgrowth of Holly Wren Spaulding’s teaching at a nearby community college, where many of her students had been asking for years if she would offer a complement to her popular Apprentice Poetry Workshop.

We read and discussed and wrote poems together. Manuscripts emerged and collections were published.

Now, a dozen years into the experiment, Holly’s vision for a warm and inclusive gathering place that celebrates the imagination, offers accessible instruction on the art and craft of poetry, and deepens our humanity takes the form of a year-round poetry school serving those seeking a creative writing education outside of academia. Classes are immersive, flexible, and affordable.

Poetry Forge is now based in southern Maine, USA, in a tiny seacoast studio surrounded by lupine flowers and apple trees. Holly’s students hail from several continents.

To date she has worked with thousands of writers—some of them highly accomplished, others just beginning to explore the practice of poetry—and continue to treat the virtual classroom as a safe haven and touchstone amidst the ongoing suffering of our times.