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Many Lanterns: Winter 2026

sparks to illuminate the poet's path


December 1 to February 4.

 

Available on demand December 1.

REGISTER FOR MANY LANTERNS

Soon the nights will lengthen,
you will lean into the year
humming like a saw.
You will fill the lamps with kerosene,
knowing somewhere a line breaks,
a city goes black,
people dig for candles in the bottom drawer.
You will be ready. You will use the song like a match.

—Naomi Shihab Nye

A Winter Invitation

When the light grows dim, we gather close to the flame.


Many Lanterns offers a season of warmth and creative renewal—brief, illuminating lessons to help you write through the darkness and rekindle your poetic fire.

Each voice-guided lesson includes a companion poem, and a gentle writing prompt to initiate a new piece of writing. Together they nurture both your writing hearth and your poet’s heart, helping you collect a constellation of fresh drafts to carry into the new year and beyond. 

We also work on a special project: A Lantern Book. This process ensures that you don't forsake your work, by gathering it into a shapely collection.

You Will Receive

This experience has been distilled to the essentials of a consistent and inspiring practice, offering poets (and secret poets):

  • 32 approachable invitations to begin new poems with original, interesting writing provocations—you’ll leave with as many drafts if you complete them all.

  • 32 companion readings from exceptional poets, each carefully chosen to ignite possibility and deepen your understanding of the art.

  • Craft pointers and poetic techniques to help you stay with your new work, rather than setting it aside.

  • Voice-guided lessons from Holly Wren Spaulding—hear the day's poem read and discussed, and settle into the calm warmth of a companionable Virgil on your path.

  •  Course booklet with all readings and writing provocations to allow you to work away from a screen.

  • A final project template and process to collect your work into a Lantern Book.

  • Live Gatherings on Zoom—where we write together, find rhythm, and benefit from each other's energy and ideas.

For You, If... 


You long to connect to that quiet source of heat within yourself.


You wish to feel creatively alive in the stillness of winter.


You’re seeking gentle structure, encouragement, and poetic company to sustain your writing through the long nights.


Whether you move through the lessons in three weeks or stretch them across the season, Many Lanterns will keep your poetry lamp from going dark.

What Poets Are Saying

“I love having these Lantern lessons and ideas! The poems are amazing, and the little prompts are much bigger than ‘little prompts.’ They’ve been an unexpected lifeline. Not only have I written, but I’ve changed some things I do as a result of Holly's ideas. It’s really changed me both body and soul.”
— Kris, January 2025

“Holly's voice has been a balm. With her vocal encouragement, I’ve written a little each day this season.”— Cathy, January 2025

“These sessions created a small, sacred space in my mind about writing—reminding me why I do it.”— Dave, Winter 2025

Join Us

Your lantern bearer is Holly Wren Spaulding, a poet and teacher known for her creative, trustworthy, and transformative methods.

Join us during the season of long nights. Let us walk through the darkness together.

Enroll Now

Live Gatherings: Writing by Lantern Light


We'll sit side by side and work through the day's writing provocation.


Holly will guide you through the process of drafting a new poem, followed by some discussion of process and technique that will help you see the potential in even a the most modest beginnings. You’ll leave each workshop with something interesting to shape on your own.

In December, our opening workshops offer a way to begin the season in community: to slow down, listen closely, and feel the quiet companionship of other writers. We'll set the mood and find a gentle pace for your writing. In February, they will bring us together following a period of personal practice for reflections, revision, and recommitments.

The live sessions are optional—join when you can, or enjoy Many Lanterns at your own pace, via the workshop recordings.  

Live Writing Sessions

Opening workshops (choose the date that works for you):

December 1, Tuesday. 4-5 pm ET

December 3, Thursday. 12-1 pm ET

 

 Closing workshops (choose the date that works for you):

February 2, Tuesday. 4-5 pm ET

February 4, Thursday, 12-1 pm ET

Holly Wren Spaulding is an award-winning writer, teaching artist, and the founder of Poetry Forge, where she leads creative writing workshops, retreats, and a manuscript incubator for poets.

A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy’s creative writing program, she holds advanced degrees from the University of Michigan and Trinity College Dublin. In addition to running her own school, she teaches for Interlochen College of Creative Arts. In 2026 she began offering a year-long training program, Imagination School. She has also taught at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Kripalu Institute, Beargrass Writers Retreat, Glen Arbor Art Association, Leelanau Cultural Center, and in Scotland at The Blue Shore Writers Retreat.

Her recent books include Familiars (Alice Greene & Co., 2020), Fire (St. Brigid Press, 2021), and Between Us (Alice Greene & Co., 2022). Her poems and essays have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness, Poetry Northwest, The New York Times, and in several anthologies, including The Poetry of Presence and The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal.

She lives and writes on the southern seacoast of Maine.