The Casual Union of Working Poets
2025 Membership Benefits
~Twice monthly interactive workshops within a warm and welcoming community, hosted by Holly Wren Spaulding
~Intelligent and inspiring conversations with fellow writers
~Access to the CUWP library, containing more than 50 recordings with guided writing exercises, craft lectures, and original writing provocations
~Access to creative advising sessions with Holly, where you can receive editorial support and private mentoring at a special CUWP member rate
Live Gatherings
Workshop happens live on Zoom, First Fridays at Noon Eastern Time. Discuss our book of the month, learn about the craft of writing, and begin a poem. Leave inspired and motivated, with a fresh draft in hand. Recorded.
Open Studio happens live on Zoom, Third Thursdays at 3 PM Eastern Time. Enjoy structure, accountability, and space for your personal creative project. Share work in progress with peers (optional), receive encouragement. Leave feeling supported, with progress having been made. Not recorded.
Join the Casual Union of Working Poets
2025 Reading Project:
Each month we read a book together, chosen by members, and then talk about what moved us, confounded us, inspired us, or lead us down a new and necessary path in our creative work. These conversations are lively and inclusive. Our writing exercises emerge within this context.
February: Louise Gluck, Winter Recipes for the Collective, 2021
March: Kimiko Hahn, Foreign Bodies, 2022
April: Anne Carson, Wrong Norma, 2024
May: Hannah Lavery, Unwritten Woman, 2024
June: Ross Gay, Be Holding, 2020
July: Diane Seuss, Modern Poetry, 2024
August: Victoria Chang, With My Back to the World
September: Mary Ruefle, The Book, 2023 + Bonus reading: On Imagination, a chapbook
October: Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind, 2022
November: Wild Card
December: Revision & Member Readings
For your convenience, this list is also available in the Poetry Forge Bookshop storefront.
I feel so darned lucky to have found Poetry Forge. CUWP is another gem, so sustaining. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
—B.H., Union Member
You are Invited to Join Us
Since 2019 I’ve hosted a circle of writers in what has become the Casual Union of Working Poets.
We meet monthly for workshops on Zoom, and over time, poems have been written, friendships and independent writing groups have formed, bodies of new work have been birthed, and work has been published, exhibited, and found other ways into the world. Secret poets have come out of the closet. Folks have founded steady writing practices anchored in our twice-monthly gatherings, and the sense of solidarity that these gatherings inspire.
Because everyone in the casual union has participated in at least one Poetry Forge workshop before joining this program, we already share common ground; there’s a feeling of familiarity and ease that catalyzes breakthroughs, connections, and valuable conversations.
For union members, this cadence and container can be life-changing, in part because it is designed to foster a sustainable and sustaining creative practice. Something else happens, too: we feel we belong, which is no small thing for a poet in our time, and in our world, such that it is.
Whether you're a secret poet, publishing poet, exhausted academic, stay at home parent with an hour to yourself just twice a month, or a happy student who has appreciated the atmosphere and approach you've encountered in Poetry Forge workshops, I invite you to join our Casual Union of Working Poets.
- Holly Wren Spaulding
Founder, Poetry Forge
Important Dates: 2025
First Fridays: Workshop at Noon Eastern (*except where noted). Writing exercises and instruction; discussion of poetry collections. This session is recorded and made available inside the member portal.
Third Thursdays: Open Studio at 3 pm Eastern (*except where noted). A time for continued conversations about our book of the month, or silent independent work time, as you prefer, followed by reading from work in progress.
February 7 & 20
March 7 & 20
April 4 & 17
May 2 & 8*
June 6 & 19
July 4 & 17
August 1 & 21
September 5 & 18
October 3 & TBD
November 7 & 20
December 5 & 11*
*Note that we meet on the second Thursday in May and December, not our usual Third Thursday.
"Thank you for a year of delight, astonishment, challenge, and creativity, wrapped up in my favorite form: poetry."
—Jean G., union member since 2020
A convivial container for your creative life.
