Longfellow Days

"Between the Lines" Poetry Workshop

Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland

Beginning August 4th

Award-winning poet Kathleen Lignell Ellis will conduct the thirteenth annual poetry writing workshop, "Between the Lines," at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, beginniing Monday, August 4th, as part of the museum's summer course offerings.

The week-long poetry writing course is devoted to generating new poetry and exploring connections betwee poetry and art, using the Farnsworth's current exhibits and permanent collection, the Rockland waterfront, and the historic Olson House as sources for participants' writing.

Experimentation with various types of collaborations and visual media will be used to jumpstart new poems, with an emphasis on the exhibits celebrating the 60th anniversary of the museum's opening. This year, special focus will be on the Farnsworth's distinguished photography collection and the extensive Louise Nevelson collection of her sculpture, prints, paintings and drawings. Workshop participants may also contribute to a sidewalk poetry project and share their work in a public reading in the fall.

In the daily workshop held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the museum library, participants will expand their range of possibilities using writng exercises, word games, found objects, photographs and group critique.

Afternoons are free to work on new poems and revisions in the museum or on the grounds of the Olson House which overlooks the St. George River. Participants are encouraged to bring cameras to the Olson House to further the exploration of the connection between writing and the photographic image. There will also be opportunities to visit Rockland galleries and Peter Ralston&Mac226;s photo exhibit at the Island Institute center near the museum.

The workshop is open to writers of all levels of experience as well as those who want to try their hand at poetry writing for the first time.

Poet and workshiop leader Kathleen Lignell Ellis has over 20 years of teaching and publishing experience and teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Maine and numerous literary conferences and festivals. From 1991-1994, she led theDowneast Poetry Workshop on the UMaine campus in Orono, and she currently coordinates the annual POETS/SPEAK! event at the Bangor Public Library in April.

Ellis has published four collections of poetry, most recently Vanishing Act, and a collection of translations of Ecuadorian poet Nancy Cerda, Hilos Invisibles. Co-editor of The Eloquent Edge: 15 Maine Women Writers, Ellis has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Arts Commission, and the Yaddo and Djerassi foundations. Her long poem, "The Range of Light" won the Pablo Neruda Poetry Award from Nimrod Magazine. In 2007, Ellis received a Good-Idea grant from the Maine Arts Commission to complete the aerial photography and writing for a collection of photos, prose, and poetry about the Penobscot Watershed, Narrow River to the North Woods.

For more information about the workshop, call the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland at (207) 596-6457.

	Award-winning poet Kathleen Lignell Ellis will conduct the thirteenth annual poetry writing workshop, "Between the Lines," at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, beginniing Monday, August 4th, as part of the museum's summer course offerings. The week-long poetry writing course is devoted to generating new poetry and exploring connections betwee poetry and art, using the Farnsworth's current exhibits and permanent collection, the Rockland waterfront, and the historic Olson House as sources for participants' writing. Experimentation with various types of collaborations and visual media will be used to jumpstart new poems, with an emphasis on the exhibits celebrating the 60th anniversary of the museum's opening. This year, special focus will be on the Farnsworth's distinguished photography collection and the extensive Louise Nevelson collection of her sculpture, prints, paintings and drawings. Workshop participants may also contribute to a sidewalk poetry project and share their work in a public reading in the fall. In the daily workshop held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the museum library, participants will expand their range of possibilities using writng exercises, word games, found objects, photographs and group critique. Afternoons are free to work on new poems and revisions in the museum or on the grounds of the Olson House which overlooks the St. George River. Participants are encouraged to bring cameras to the Olson House to further the exploration of the connection between writing and the photographic image. There will also be opportunities to visit Rockland galleries and Peter Ralston&Mac226;s photo exhibit at the Island Institute center near the museum. The workshop is open to writers of all levels of experience as well as those who want to try their hand at poetry writing for the first time. Poet and workshiop leader Kathleen Lignell Ellis has over 20 years of teaching and publishing experience and teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Maine and numerous literary conferences and festivals. From 1991-1994, she led theDowneast Poetry Workshop on the UMaine campus in Orono, and she currently coordinates the annual POETS/SPEAK! event at the Bangor Public Library in April. Ellis has published four collections of poetry, most recently Vanishing Act, and a collection of translations of Ecuadorian poet Nancy Cerda, Hilos Invisibles. Co-editor of The Eloquent Edge: 15 Maine Women Writers, Ellis has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Arts Commission, and the Yaddo and Djerassi foundations. Her long poem, "The Range of Light" won the Pablo Neruda Poetry Award from Nimrod Magazine. In 2007, Ellis received a Good-Idea grant from the Maine Arts Commission to complete the aerial photography and writing for a collection of photos, prose, and poetry about the Penobscot Watershed, Narrow River to the North Woods. For more information about the workshop, call the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland at (207) 596-6457.