pre-registration required - limit 10 students

Saturday, Feb 21 2026

10 am - 4 pm

$85

Open to all writers, regardless of experience.

Robert Creeley (1926-2005) was a ground-breaking, internationally acclaimed poet and novelist associated with the Black Mountain or Projectivist Poets and the New American Poetry. He lived in Albuquerque from 1956-1962, then moved to the village of Placitas with his wife Bobbie Louise Hawkins, where they lived until 1966, when Creeley accepted a position at the University of Buffalo, NY. They continued to spend summers in Placitas for several more years. Dr. John Roche studied with Creeley at the University of Buffalo, NY, during the 1980s. 

In this workshop, we will look at what made Creeley such a singular and influential poet, and what we, as writers, can learn from him. We will be reading poems by Creeley and his contemporaries (such as Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, Ed Dorn, and Gary Snyder). We will have a minimum of three poetry writing exercises following from Creeley’s poetics, often called “composition by field,” and his penchant for compression.

John Roche lives in Placitas, New Mexico, helping Jules Nyquist run Jules’ Poetry Playhouse and edit Poetry Playhouse Publications. He earned his PhD in English at the University of Buffalo. He taught Literature and Creative Writing classes for decades at various colleges and was formerly President of Just Poets in Rochester, NY, a member of the board of BOA Editions, chief organizer of the Black Mountain North Symposium, and an instigator of the annual Cloudburst Council poets' retreat in the Finger Lakes. Along with editing the five-volume Poets Speak series and other anthologies (including Mo' Joe), his own poetry collections include On Conesus, Topicalities, Road Ghosts, The Joe Poems: The Continuing Saga of Joe the Poet, Joe Rides Again: Further Adventures of Joe the Poet, and his newest, Tubbables.