Publication-Ready Prose Poetry

with Rosemary Tantra Bensko

publication ready prose poetry

December 11, 2024
6 weeks

Original price was: $445.00.Current price is: $380.00.

Original price was: $445.00.Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now

Discover how to craft and revise prose poems so compelling they’ll catch the attention of top literary magazines and anthologies. This course is designed to help you celebrate and elevate your unique voice, guiding you toward a deeper connection with your readers.

What sets prose poetry apart? Without line breaks, prose poetry relies on the strength of the voice to resonate. In this course, you’ll learn to harness the natural musicality of language while ensuring your use of figurative language supports, rather than detracts from, the central metaphor of each piece.

You’ll explore how rhythms, pauses, patterns, and sentence structures shape your distinct style. As you fine-tune your tone and voice, you’ll create poetry that readers will return to, trusting it to transport them into a particular state of mind.

Each week, you’ll submit a new or revised poem and receive personalized feedback from both me and your classmates. I’ll highlight what’s working, from effective techniques to powerful imagery, and offer suggestions for areas that could be stronger, whether it’s avoiding clichés, making generalities more vivid, or tightening figurative language that strays from the poem’s core metaphor. If a line makes me laugh, cry, or evokes a strong reaction, I’ll share that response with you—and you may even hear it firsthand (as I sometimes provide audio feedback). 

No experience required. Whether you’re new to prose poetry or looking to refine your skills, this four-week, asynchronous course fits seamlessly into any schedule. Through a blend of reading, writing, and revising, you’ll explore the genre’s origins, meet its key figures, and see how it thrives in today’s literary scene—all while developing your own work in conversation with your peers.

Who This Course is For:

This course is designed for writers of all levels, whether you’re completely new to prose poetry or have some experience under your belt. All you need is a curiosity and the ability to commit to reading weekly lectures, exploring published poems online, and offering thoughtful feedback on your peers’ work. While most students will be polishing their poems with the goal of publication in mind, you’re welcome to join even if you’re writing for personal fulfillment—just let us know your goals. The focus is on progress, not perfection.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

  • Learn about the history of prose poetry.
  • Familiarize yourself with current prose poetry and magazines.
  • Hone your skills from taking into consideration our feedback.

Writing Goals

  • Write three to six new poems.
  • You’ll practice evaluating poetry and develop a community.
  • You’ll prepare to submit your poems to magazines and anthologies.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Inspiration from the Historical Context of Prose Poetry

We will investigate the history and progression of prose poetry, by reading some inspirational works, like Richard Brautigan, the context of the times, and the major poets who represent the most common tonalities such as the brooding, impulsive French rebels, and later the playful absurdists like James Tate and Russell Edson.
 
Assignments: Read a selection of mid-20th Century Revival poems. Complete one or more of the provided writing prompts. 
 
Homework: Submit your first poem. 

Week 2: Compete Among Current Prose Poetry

This is a very actionable unit of immersing yourself in the current publishing scene so you know what’s being written, where it’s being published, and how to accomplish that yourself, successfully targeting the correct magazines and anthologies.
 
Assignments: Read through some current online magazines that publish prose poetry, and if you have access to print ones at a book store, library, that would be useful too. Maybe you already have some around the house to look at, though my hope is that you’ll discover some new ones this week. Give us a little report on what you notice: on the types of prose poems that keep your attention to the end, or on the kinds of poems that are taken by different magazines and how that relates to the editor’s own poetry styles, for example.
 
Homework: Revise your poem with that market in mind. Or, if you’re happy with the poem from last week, you can write a new poem instead. 

Week 3: Controlling Figurative Language

Each prose poem can create a very strong effect by maintaining strict control over its use of figurative language so it all falls into no more than one overarching metaphor; the first step is recognizing just what is figurative.
 
Assignments: In the poem you write this week, please highlight in yellow every use of figurative language. It doesn’t need to be a simile, analogy or metaphor. Just regular ol’ language that you might only notice is actually figurative once you think about it.
 
Decide if every highlighted word or phrase fits together under one overarching metaphor. If your piece is quite long, there can be some leeway. And maybe in some poems you write outside of class, you’ll give yourself lots of leeway, who knows. But please humor me and see if you can make all of the figurative language in this poem fit together in one category. If there’s any question about what the overarching metaphor category is, you can let us know in a note.
 
Homework: Submit your next poem. 

Week 4: Pleasing Rhythm Adds New Meaning

As rhythm is just as important in prose poetry and even more dependent on the narrative voice, you’ll apply some techniques to keep it pleasing.
 
Assignments: Before considering your revised poem complete and ready to upload, you must read it aloud. Don’t use your voice to force the words to have the rhythm you want to them to have. Let them flow out naturally; that’s how readers will hear them in their head. The way they talk. Scan the emphasized syllables and let us see it, however you want to portray it. Once you do that, what do you think about the rhythm, Is it musical enough? Does the music create a sense of meaning in itself? Would someone reading it who didn’t know the language still appreciate it? 
 
Homework: Submit your revised poem or a new poem. 

Week 5: Sentence Fragments, Questions, Pauses, Sudden Turns, Finale

Much of the quality of your voice comes through the way the meaning arises from the sound of the mind thinking, changing direction, turning on the reader, stopping to think, comedic timing, hard stops, and surprising jumps.
 
Assignment: Write whatever prose poem wants to come out, and pay attention to how one word follows the next. Does it always simply follow chronologically, logically A to B to C? What if you mix it up a little and veer off in new directions, make jumps without transition? Are they all complete sentences? Can you employ fragments, even just one word? Ask questions, pause in unexpected places? Maybe you could make the ending as powerful as possible with a surprise that puts everything else in new perspective.
 
Homework: Submit your next new poem. 

Week 6: Your Unique Voice

It’s time to take everything we’ve talked about so far into consideration while assessing just what your voice is as it comes through the group of three to six poems you’re writing this quarter and by extension, all your creative writing, so you can heighten it to make readers recognize your work and want to return to it again and again to experience that feeling of spending time with you.
 
Assignment: Take some time to be self-aware, thinking about all your prose poems from this course, and by extension, other prose or poetry in which you have a similar approach. See if you can get a feel for how others would recognize your work. What’s you about it?
 
Homework: Submit your third revision or your last new poem. 
 

Original price was: $445.00.Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now

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Student Feedback for Rosemary Tantra Bensko:

I’ve learned more from Rosemary than I have from any of my college writing professors. K. Arth

I have had the fortune of working with Rosemary for a year and a half. Before I became connected with Rosemary I felt quite stuck as a writer. Rosemary has brought a world of deep expertise and patience to my writing experience. Her guidance has opened my eyes in more ways than space permits in this testimony. The MFA program of which I’m a part is quite good but Rosemary’s coaching has helped me grow even more than what the program has offered.

My experience has been that each submission of writing samples I make to Rosemary brings new insight. If you want to have those “lights going on” moments, you will benefit in tremendous ways through working with Rosemary. She knows how to review drafts effectively and give detailed, eye-opening advice. After a few months, I felt I was on a new path, and I continue to grow under her guidance. I see myself continuing to benefit from her teaching for a long time to come.

I advise any person who desires to learn about writing to connect with Rosemary. There’s nothing like the one-to-one, detailed work that she provides. Rosemary is a great mixture of supportive patience and  objective, constructive feedback. Daniel Rezek

Rosemary is the real thing. She is experienced and knowledgable, tough and fair, thorough and completely supportive. It’s clear that she understood what I was trying to do; she supported that. Anne Hodges White

I love Rosemary.  Her feedback was generous and helpful. I thought the lectures were the best so far on Writers.com. There are a few classes I’m looking forward to taking.  I really like working with Rosemary, she’s wonderful. Laura Secor

Rosemary is phenomenal! She made me realize that poetry involves the whole body. Her workshop nudged me gently out of the practice of poetry as simply a mental activity with each module. My poetry has been transformed. She is a gifted instructor. Patti Croop

I am thrilled that not only did I get started writing poems, but with the inspiration and guidance provided in Poetry Workshop, have actually written a few that feel meaningful to me. I even have had one accepted for publication! Melissa Haylock

Rosemary was amazing, and her lessons so thoughtful and thought provoking. After 34 years since the last time I tried to write poetry I was quite nervous, but she helped me start to find my voice again and I remembered how deeply I had loved poetry. Barbara White

I loved Poetry Workshop. Rosemary was both pointed and supportive in her critique, and I really feel I developed as a writer. She pulled fantastic poetry for our weekly readings, and her lessons were always clear and constructive. Tamara Kreutz

Rosemary Bensko is an excellent teacher. Her course instruction and selection of poems are to the point. She’s also very sharp in commenting on our writings and guiding us to improve our pieces. Her recorded analysis of a poem for each unit is my favorite. It’s full of insight and her voice is so pleasant. Hongying Liu

Rosemary Bensko’s instructional materials and attention to student work is professional and engaged beyond the expectations for an online course. Her attention to our work is so prompt and engaged—she takes the construction of a good poem seriously and that’s exactly what you want in a poetry instructor. She attends to language, the presentation of feeling, the development of idea and story in a poem. I’m currently taking my 3rd class with her. Nina Goss

Rosemary’s feedback was prompt, copious and direct. She was very honest with her comments without being harsh or negative. Her enthusiasm was contagious and she continuously pushed me to grow and get better. I was also blown away by the breadth and depth of the lectures and associated learning material. Rosemary’s resources will offer me months if not years of further study. Marcus Hilgers

This course was challenging and fun. Rosemary’s critiques were very helpful and I am a better poet thanks to her constructive and encouraging comments. It forced me to write each week and that was good for my body and soul. Gwen Morden

Rosemary was excellent. She had a way with words! I admired her ability to herd a rag-tag band of wannabe writers a little further down the writing road. George Simard

Rosemary is an excellent teacher, encouraging yet critical at the same time. She helped my hone my writing skills and improve the structure of my work. Judy Hampson

I was thrilled with my first course with Writers.com and with my instructor, Rosemary Bensko. This was a way for me to begin writing regularly with support and feedback and I learned so much more than I had anticipated. Rosemary is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and gives generous, positive feedback that is also direct and useful. I wanted to grow my skills and I felt like I did. I was so happy that I started another course the very next week! Julie Gibbs

Rosemary is brilliant, engaged, gives both inline and general feedback and even includes audio feedback for tackling certain problems in your writing. I learned where my writing belongs and in what genre I was able to write. Rosemary is an inspiring teacher; I’ll be delighted to take another of her classes. Sophie Cayeux

Rosemary taught me so much about using muscular language and avoiding expository narratives. The lectures were amazing. I read them all the time. Benjamin Magie

Rosemary was wonderful. Always encouraging, very kind in feedback but always pushing you on to make the draft better. It’s hard to achieve that balance.  I really liked the way she recorded the feedback so that it felt more personal. I liked the  Haiku Learning website she used too. There was plenty of choice of assignment and they were interesting and challenging. Everything was useful in moving us to the goal of getting our story/stories finished. I thought the notes given were especially interesting and generous and although I am a compulsory buyer of books on writing, there was much that was new or better explained (loved the information on different types of short story – some of which I hadn’t come across; and the discussion of different ways of developing the plot was very useful to me.) I ended up with what I wanted from the course – a goodish draft of a story. I see so many more classes I’d like to do!  Sharon Bakar

Rosemary’s editing was amazing! I learned a lot about removing narration and getting to the action. Norma Kaufman

I loved this class. And Rosemary. I feel that I have made a transition (finally) with her and might actually have the confidence to really begin to write seriously . She is honest, constructive and has really help build my confidence. I am away at the moment but will be in touch re private classes with her. I will be interested in any class she is doing! Jeanette del Olmo

Rosemary presented her critiques in a positive light but made relevant and helpful comments. I often took a step away after reading her response to my work and then came back to revise. Each time, I felt that the changes I made improved the quality of the piece. I emailed Rosemary several times with questions, and she was quick to respond. I would not hesitate to take another class from her. I felt the lectures were stimulating and the assignments were challenging. Both forced me to engage and push myself to another level. I have recommended your site to others and hope to continue taking classes from writers.com. Janis Brams

Have you always wanted to write the perfect story? Explore your inner visions and commit them to paper? Be prepared, Rosemary Bensko will set you on fire…as a teacher she has the unique gift to be able to identify within you your innate spark of creativity and ignite the ether of your imagination, to reveal to you the magic of your words. She is that good. As a writer I can testify to the value of working with Rosemary. Growing up I have always enjoyed words. I love to spin them around, phrasing moments in time, to make them clear and born anew. And when I took her class, Rosemary got that right away and encouraged me to play with the tools of language, providing me resources to help stretch my imagination. With her tutorship, I was able to refine my writing skills while retaining the desire to honor that which flows from the heart. That is a very good thing. I wholeheartedly recommend you take this class and allow Rosemary to help you to bring your writing up to the next level… Paul Barnett

This was challenging and substantive. Rosemary’s readings of our posted work were invariably prompt, detailed, and constructive. As usual, the participants were serious, generous, and ambitious writers and readers. Rosemary is engaged and professional. I admire her as a fellow teacher and am grateful to be her student. Nina Goss

Thanks for the class. I downloaded all the lectures. I feel like MicroObstacles and Flow is a great technique. It is taking me time and thought to process… I want to really be able to apply this to my own fiction/works, so I will probably take the class again once I get more of a handle on the technique… I have taken several classes from Rosemary. I have tried to put all of her feedback into practice. My writing (and reading and viewing) craft have improved with every class. One of my pieces that I workshopped in Rosemary’s classes has been published. I just feel so grateful for her mentorship and turning me on to Writers.com!… Chris Perkins

December 11, 2024
6 weeks

Original price was: $445.00.Current price is: $380.00.

Early Bird! Enroll now & save 15% until November 11

Original price was: $445.00.Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now

Rosemary Tantra Bensko

About

Rosemary Bensko—writing as Tantra Bensko—has hundreds of flashes, short stories, novelettes, and a novella in journals such as Mad Hatters Review, The Journal of Experimental Fiction, Fiction International, The Fabulist and anthologies such as Women Writing the Weird I and II, Surreal South, Holdfast, Up, Do, Not Somewhere Else But Here, Looking Back, Writing Disorder 2, Redacted Stories, Quantum Genre on the Planet of the Arts, Cellar Door 111, No Site for the Saved, Cadavre Exquis, Ironic Fantastic 3, and Triangulation: Parch. She also has a over a hundred poems in journals and anthologies, such as Chatahoochie Review, Carolina Quarterly, Florida Review, Hawaii Review, and North of Wakulla.

She has several chapbooks, such as The Cabinet of What You Don’t See (ISMs Press) and short story collections, such as Lucid Membrane (Night Publishing). She has published other people’s work as well through a magazine and LucidPlay Publishing.

She has won awards for both her poetry and fiction, including Carolina Quarterly — the Academy of American Poets Award, Punkpen, The Iowa Journal of Literary Studies award, and the Oblongata Award from Medulla Review and two awards from Cezanne’s Carrot, and many more.

Her four psychological suspense novels have garnered many industry awards, all in large categories. The first, Glossolalia: Psychological Suspense, won the gold medal from Readers Favorite in Intrigue and also the gold award from Literary Titan. Floating on Secrets won a Silver medal from eLit for Romance for all major or small press. And Encore: A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction won the Bronze medal from eLit for Mystery/Thrillers/Suspense, and was listed as one of the dozen best thrillers of the year by BestThrillers, beating competitors Stephen King, John Grisham, and Dean Koontz.

Rosemary earned her MA from FSU and MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop, teaching both places and at Memphis State. She has taught for years through UCLA X Writing Program and her own academy online, and maintains a resource site about experimental writing. She lives in Berkeley.