Seif-Eldeine Och, a recipient of the “Emerging Poet” fellowship from the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow (WCDH), will facilitate a workshop at the Fayetteville Vet Center as his community outreach project during his January residency. Poetry has the power to insight fully communicate the intimate and the mundane in beautiful, creative ways. “Finding Inspiration Through Poetry” will teach veteran writers of all levels and the simply curious to inspire and be inspired by poetry. The workshop will be held on Friday, January 21, at the Fayetteville Veterans Center and is complimentary for all Fayetteville Vet Center clients.
Och will guide participants through a range of poetic forms, including haiku, sonnet, and free verse, providing examples and reviewing the characteristics of each form. The class will discuss what they like and dislike about each form, how poetry can improve one’s writing skills, and how sticking to a specific poetic form can stimulate the imagination. Attendees will have the opportunity to write a poem, and, if desired, share it with the group. Och said, “This is my first time working with veterans, and the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow is a great supporter of veterans, offering a fellowship for veterans this year.” He added, “Maybe this can be the beginning of participants’ journeys to get that fellowship!”
“With Honor and Pride” is a fellowship for writers who are or were U.S. service members generously sponsored by Wayne Clark, himself a veteran. Work may be in any genre and there is no expectation that it be of a military-themed subject. Rather, the successful applicant will demonstrate literary merit and the likelihood of publication. Prior publication is not a requirement. The fellowship winner will receive a two-week residency at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow. Residencies provide uninterrupted writing time, a European-style gourmet dinner served on weeknights, the camaraderie of other professional writers when desired, and a community kitchen stocked with the basics. Applications are due by January 31, 2022. For details or to apply, visit https://www.writerscolony.org/fellowships.
Seif-Eldeine is a Syrian-American poet with a degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Tufts University and an MFA in Poetry from Lesley University. He was a winner of the 2021 “Emerging Poet” fellowship for writers assembling their first published book of poems sponsored by Linda Leavell and Brooks Garner from Fayetteville. Och received a two-week residency at WCDH, where he will be working on a book of narrative and lyrical poems about the Syrian Civil War told in poetry and narratives from multiple points of view, including soldiers, refugees, women, men, children, and the elderly, as they face its harsh conditions. Och was also a finalist for the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship, the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, the Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest, and the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. He has been published in the Massachusetts Review, Poetry Daily, Pedestal, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Qu.
The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to nurture writers of all backgrounds, genres, and levels of experience in a supportive environment that builds community, stimulates new thinking, energizes creative expression, and optimizes productivity. Since opening its doors to writers in 2000, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow has made a lasting impact on the arts and literary communities hosting over 1,80 writers from 48 states and 14 countries. For more information, please visit www.writerscolony.org or call Michelle Hannon or Jeanne Glass at (479)253-7444.
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