Anna Scotti
Anna Scotti is the author of Bewildered by All This Broken Sky, a collection that was awarded the inaugural Lightscatter Poetry Prize in 2021. Ms. Scotti’s poems have been awarded the Pocotaligo Prize, the Fisher Prize, and many other prizes and honors, and have appeared in The New Yorker since 2016. She writes in various forms, but is especially noted for her prose poetry, which Ellen Bass called “suffused with beauty, pulsing with life,” and “miraculous.” Katharine Coles characterizes Ms. Scotti’s work as “wry and snappy, equal parts sorrow and bliss.” Also a celebrated young adult novelist and mystery writer, Ms. Scotti has guided many aspiring poets toward publication – and excellence. She believes in the power of poetry to transform, uplift, and inspire, and she knows that while inspiration is divine, most poetic excellence results from hard work, revision, and self-editing. Learn more at www.annakscotti.com.
Student Feedback for Anna
Anna is a brilliant teacher. I will take her course again and again. We learned style and syntax from reading and analyzing poetry and then experimented with those techniques through in-class prompts. She created a safe space to share our work and that process encouraged a lot of growth. I left her class with a series of poems that I’m proud of and a sense of my voice as a poet. Jodi Morton
Anna is a fabulous teacher. She is 100 percent engaged with every writer and extremely supportive of everyone’s individual progress. She knows how to smoothly and effectively run workshops so everyone’s voice is included and raised up. Janice Scudder
Excellent! The course materials were very good and the teacher, gifted. Her feedback on work submitted was very helpful. The students who submitted every week and offered feedback were amazing. Talented writers, every one! Lynne Schilling
Anna was a very good instructor. She is generous with her time and energy in helping students to improve their writing. Anna’s prompts in class were very good and led to lines for new poems every week. She also offered real world experiences with literary magazines and publishing that I felt were very helpful. Jeffrey Shalom
Anna is an exceptional writing teacher who possesses a unique blend of warmth, understanding, and deep knowledge of the craft. Passionate about poetry and its transformation into prose, she is a kind and insightful mentor who leaves no stone unturned in helping students unlock their inner power as writers.
With patience and expertise, Anna helped me edit my poems to their best versions. Her classes are fun, but you will work hard!
Anna shows you how to break a poem down to what she calls “the working parts-” and then she shows you how to use that as inspiration to write your own.
I learned so much working with Anna, and I’ve published four poems since our class together.
With her own successful writing career as a foundation, Anna’s guidance is invaluable. Anna’s expertise in the prose poem genre and her intuitive sense of how language and image work makes her an excellent choice for anyone who wants to improve their skills in this particular form. I wholeheartedly recommend Anna to anyone looking to grow as a writer.
