Gail Ghai • Poet/Author

Gail is an internationally published poet, Pushcart Prize nominee, and author of three poetry chapbooks. She served on the Associate Board of the Intl Poetry Forum and Poet in Residence.

Elevating Your Poetry with Similes and Metaphors (Creative Catalyst 2 hrs.) 
Following a brief review of simile and metaphor and the values of each literary device, writers will read partly complete lines from published poems, identify them as simile or metaphor, and fill in the missing words that we’ll share and discuss. Using the writing process, the “missing” words and phrases will be listed, reordered, and expanded into a poem in which the participants use at least one simile and one metaphor.

Moving Your Words from General to Specific to Concrete
This workshop will encourage writers to move away from generalities in their writing and inject concrete concepts to build clarity. Step-by-step instructions as well as a graphic organizer to create an imagery list will be provided. In addition, published writing samples—including an excerpt from Tobias Wolf’s short story “Powder,” and Nan Fry’s poem, “The Plum”—will inspire enthusiasm. Participants will receive a sensory word list to expand their writing into a finished product