Grab your happy paddle and your busy pencil!
“Poets on the Raft,” our first poetry writing circle, will launch in October.
When: Meeting every other Wednesday, starting October 4, 2023, 7-8:30PM Central (8-9:30PM Eastern, 6-7:30PM Mountain, 5-6:30PM Pacific)
Where: Zoom
Format: A safe, receptive space in which you’ll be able to . . .
bring one of your original poems at any point in its development
request the kind of group feedback that will best support your creative process (for example: encouragement only, or careful critique)
Hosts: Annette Grunseth and Gloria Heffernan (see photos and bios below)
Circle size: limited to twelve so that everyone can fully participate. Seats filled on first-come, first-served basis.
Membership eligibility: Beginning poets, dabblers, old hands . . .
Gatherings will not be recorded.
If you’re interested in joining . . .
First: Email Annette Grunseth, the circle’s communications host, using this button. IMPORTANT: If this button doesn’t work for you, email phyllis@phylliscoledai.com.
All twelve seats in the circle will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
If all twelve seats have already been filled, Annette will ask if you want to join the group’s waiting list.
If you’re admitted as a member, Annette will email you a Zoom link to use for all the gatherings.
Meet your hosts!


Annette Langlois Grunseth, Green Bay, WI, has participated in poetry groups for more than 25 years. She is widely published in journals and anthologies such as Wisconsin People & Ideas, Bramble, and Poetry of Presence II. She received the 2022 Hal Gruetzmacher Prize for Poetry and earned a 2022 Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America for her book Combat and Campus: Writing Through War. She earned a Pushcart Prize nomination with her poetry book Becoming Trans-Parent. Her work has been recognized by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Wisconsin Academy. Learn more at www.annettegrunseth.com.
Gloria Heffernan’s Exploring Poetry of Presence (Back Porch Productions) won the 2021 CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. She received the 2022 Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize. She is the author of the collections Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List (New York Quarterly Books). Her forthcoming chapbook, Animal Grace, was selected for the Keystone Chapbook Series prize. Her work appears in over 100 publications, including Poetry of Presence II.