Application Deadline: December 2, 2025, 11:59 PM PT
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Beyond Baroque’s second Manuscript Lab seeks ten poets who will each revise and complete their first manuscripts over the duration of eight in-person sessions. The lab will create an active space in which peer feedback, one-on-one conferences, and a braintrust of our community is generated and shared among writers who are working on their first full-length manuscript. The Manuscript Lab will focus on building a workshop community centered around collaborative discussion and discovery. Hosted by author Sara Ellen Fowler, this program is an opportunity to learn with and from an intimate cohort and analyze what compels a successful first book of poetry–the hows and whys of architecture, craft, and thematic energy. Poets will create and develop their first manuscripts in daring new ways which expand the visions of each collection. APPLICATION DEADLINE: December 2, 2025, 11:59 PM PT APPLICATION DETAILS: The Manuscript Lab program at Beyond Baroque will include multiple elements and opportunities for poets to learn about their own process and connect with other Los Angeles writers. The main goals of the lab include synthesizing the feedback of the workshop group; developing the micro and macro levels of editing; reading exemplary first books and discussing the craft, risks, and heart that make them so powerful; and, with industry perspectives, constellating the publishing landscape and honing a strategy for submitting poets’ works. Application materials will be reviewed by a committee of four local writers, with an eye toward strong formal and thematic engagements in the writing sample and clear creative goals. The application, which includes a 10-15 page work sample, is due on December 2, 2025, at 11:59 PM PST. The poets selected to participate in the program will be announced December 16, 2025. The Manuscript Lab is offered at a low cost of $495, and will run from January 10 - February 28, 2026. Selected poets are expected to pay for the Lab by December 31, 2025. To apply or share, please fill out or distribute the form HERE. ABOUT SARA ELLEN FOWLER Sara Ellen Fowler’s first book, Two Signatures (University of Utah Press, 2024), was selected by Joan Naviyuk Kane as the winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize. Her work has been published in The Offing, Poetry Daily, Cream City Review, X-TRA, and Gigantic Sequins, among others. A recipient of a 2023 California Arts Council Emerging Individual Artist Fellowship, she holds a BFA in fine art from Art Center College of Design and an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside. |