You are not alone.

This is an advanced program in a specific sense: I designed it for writers who've already been in serious study — with me or another teacher — and are ready to commit to a project and a process over the long term. If that sounds like where you are, I'd encourage you to apply. Every cohort I assemble is meant to be varied and interesting — different backgrounds, different work, different reasons for being there.

On the other hand, if you're returning to writing after a long gap, time away from the page doesn't disqualify you. What matters more is whether you're ready to commit to a project and a process for a solid year. Many of the strongest writers I've worked with have come back to their work after years away, sometimes with more clarity than they had before the gap. If you're feeling that pull to return in earnest — not just to dabble, but to go deep — I'd encourage you to apply.

Most weeks we will meet in one form or another for 1-1.5 hours. Zoom is our tool for doing so. 

That's alright — we'll meet individually in the fall to help you find a path forward and define a plan. That said, if the idea of an extended project feels remote or unimaginable to you right now, this may not be the right experience for you — at least not yet.

I'm always happy to arrange a custom payment plan, or have a conversation about creative ways to pay for tuition. I also hold one Community Access spot per cohort — a way of extending the program to a writer for whom cost would otherwise be the barrier. This isn't a traditional scholarship; it's an artist-to-artist conversation. If you're accepted into the program and cost is standing between you and saying yes, email me directly and we'll talk about how to make this experience accessible to you. Learn more about my community access policy here.

Please apply to the program first; conversations about financial matters will wait until all applications have been reviewed. 

Each month offers approximately four opportunities to meet on Zoom, totaling over 5 hours. You'll also meet with me individually at key points for private mentoring. We take breaks around the winter holidays, and the summer schedule is lighter in July and August. 

The real time commitment, though, is to your own practice and project. I'd like to think this will involve 4 or more hours of solo work each week — more is better, and once you're underway, more may be inevitable.

We meet via Zoom, with an online portal for recorded sessions and documents — short readings, project prompts, and other materials to support your process. The heart of the program is live and interactive, so you're encouraged to attend as many meetings as possible.

Applications will be reviewed beginning in late-July until August 15. Since the cohort is small, spots may fill before the review period ends — so you are encouraged to apply early. Those not invited to join this first round are welcome to reapply the next time the program runs. You will hear from me one way or another by August 20.

It's both — and something more than either alone.

As a small group, we'll discuss matters and topics related to practice and process, with a special emphasis on developing a significant (to you) project over the span of a year — releasing that work in some way, and being prepared to write and talk about it fluently. Our group meetings will be generative both intellectually and creatively, and will always involve a creative writing element.

Our private advising sessions will support your development as a writer and artist — both the work itself, and your relationship to it: spiritually, emotionally, and otherwise. These sessions will be scheduled at key intervals during the year, beginning in November.

Perhaps more importantly, this is an opportunity for you to develop a syllabus for yourself, in support of your independent project. I look forward to helping you with this part. Each writer will have their own interests and I want to encourage their pursuit. Additionally, I will propose a few key texts that we may explore together. I look forward to what will happen when we come together in this way.

Imagination School isn't trying to replicate the MFA experience outside academia; it's built on a different premise entirely.

Most MFA and alt-MFA programs are structured around workshop critique, credentialing, and — often — the pressures of literary career-building ("po-biz") folded into the curriculum itself. Even at their best, they tend to orient outward: toward legibility, legitimacy, the eyes of the field, and carry the pressure to parlay those credentials into a literary job and income. Even those who attend these programs for purely artistic reasons soon find that the culture is one of vying and proving. Imagination School doesn't do any of that. There's no degree and we won't emphasize publishing or professional positioning in favor of prioritizing the work itself. While one on one feedback, and limited group critiques will happen, what I really want for you is a deeper trust in your own ability to discern for yourself. If being an artist or writer in public is your intention, I will help you move in that direction.

What you'll find in Imagination School is a small, devoted group of writers (and artists who write) turning toward the work itself, and daring to make it matter — not because the outside world says so, but because you do. 

It's also simply smaller and more intimate than most programs — up to twelve writers, working closely with me and with each other, with the kind of sustained attention that's hard to find in a larger cohort. Imagination School is less about building a career, and more about deepening a practice, held in a structure built entirely around depth, process, and the completion of one significant body of work over a year.

I've invoked the idea of a hermitage because these structures are often set apart from the world in a meaningful way, and those who go there, even figuratively, honor a need for this "apartness".

The next session runs: November 12/13, 2026 until December 9/10, 2027, depending on whether our group prefers Thursdays or Fridays (participants will be polled).

Sessions will be recorded and available for the year.

All times are Eastern Time Zone.

Private mentoring sessions with me happen Tuesdays-Fridays during the work day. Five are included in tuition and more may be booked at an additional cost. Thoughtful feedback will be offered on work in progress before each session. This will look different for each writer and project, and ensures you have an experienced editor and working artist on your creative team.

Additional opportunities to gather happen within the Casual Union of Working Poets, an alumni group for Poetry Forge writers, where we are focused on generating new writing. Those happen First Fridays Noon-1:15 pm and Third Thursdays 3-4:30 pm from February until December.

My manuscript incubator, A Body of Work, offers focused support around the creation of a chapbook length manuscript. It lasts 4 months and happens most winters (November until March), depending on whether there are enough writers in Poetry Forge who are ready for this big step.

The idea for Imagination School emerged, in part, in response to the fact that so many very fine writers have completed ABOW and are eager to undertake larger projects now. Some of these projects are interdisciplinary. Others have to do with living bigger creative lives in public. I am excited to bring some of those people together again, and to support a more spacious process. I also welcome folks who have not completed ABOW but want to do a year-long project with me on their team.

If you are not sure which program is right for you, reach out and we can have a conversation: holly (at) poetryforge.us