Poetry Chapbook Lab
What Is Poetry Chapbook Lab?
Charlotte Lit’s Poetry Chapbook Lab is a year-long low-residency program designed to help you produce a cohesive, well-crafted chapbook manuscript of 12-20 poems (approximately 28 pages). The program combines monthly online workshopping with quarterly weekend intensives and one-to-one mentorship by one of four award-winning poet faculty members.
Why Chapbook Lab?
The step between crafting individual poems and assembling a collection for publication is a big one, even for experienced writers. Not only does each poem have to sing, but selected pieces must also speak to one another in a cohesive way. Chapbook Lab is designed to address both goals, assuring you finish the program year with a polished manuscript you can feel good about. Additionally, you’ll receive helpful guidance about sending individual poems to journals and your manuscript to contests and book publishers (including Charlotte Lit Press). Most important, however, is the opportunity to build long-term relationships with members of the Chapbook Lab cohort, that group of 12-16 poets who support and celebrate one another throughout the year—and beyond.
How Does It Work?
Our three-part program:
- Weekend Intensives: Each quarter, you’ll attend a weekend intensive that includes a master class with one of our esteemed Chapbook Lab mentors, workshopping sessions facilitated by local faculty, and a faculty reading/reception. 2025 Intensive Dates (attendance requirement: 3 of 4 weekends):
- January 25-26
- May 3-4
- August 2-3
- November 1-2
- Monthly Workshopping: During months without an in-person meeting (February, March, April, June, July, September, October, and December), you’ll give and receive feedback, including facilitator feedback, on poems in progress through the Wet Ink online workshopping platform.
- Poet Mentorship: You’ll be matched for quarterly one-to-one mentorship with an award-winning poet. Each quarter, you’ll submit a packet of work to your mentor for extensive written feedback and a brief phone or Zoom meeting.
Our Award-Winning Faculty
Monthly workshopping sessions (four in-person, eight online) will be led by longtime Lit faculty member Julie Funderburk, co-facilitated by Charlotte Lit co-founder and Chapbook Lab director Kathie Collins. Together, they’ll take up the mantle of the late Dannye Romine Powell.
Mentors for the 2025 cohort will be finalized and announced this December. Past program mentors include Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Nickole Brown (pictured at left), Stuart Dischell, Lola Haskins, Earl Hines, and Jessica Jacobs.
Information Sessions
We want to learn about you and your project. Join Charlotte Lit Co-founder/Chapbook Lab Director Kathie Collins and other potential applicants via Zoom for one of four information sessions. These informal sessions give you a chance to introduce yourself, meet our program director, and ask questions that will help you decide whether this year’s Chapbook Lab is right for you. (All applicants are required to attend one information session as part of the application process.)
Register here for one of the dates below.
- 12 pm on Thursday 10/10/2024
- 6 pm on Thursday 10/10/2024
- 12 pm on Wednesday 10/16/2024
- 6 pm on Wednesday 10/16/2024
- 12 pm on Wednesday 10/23/2024
- 6 pm on Monday 10/28/2024
- 12 pm on Monday 11/4/2024
Your Investment
Photo by Page Leggett
The base fee for the 2023-24 program year is $3900, payable in monthly installments of $325. In addition, students must be Charlotte Lit members. (Memberships begin at $75 per year.)
Chapbook Lab is also time intensive. Cohort members are expected to attend a minimum of three of the four in-person weekend intensives, to actively participate in the Wet Ink online community (including timely completion of monthly online workshop feedback), and on-time submission of quarterly mentor packets.
How to Appy
Applications for the upcoming program year, which runs from January 2025 to December 2025, are open October 1–November 15, 2024. The cohort is limited to 16 members; admission is competitive. Acceptances will be confirmed no later than December 1, 2024.
While previous publication credits are not required, Chapbook Lab is designed to support intermediate and advanced writers. Strong candidates will be avid readers of contemporary poetry, have previous craft class and workshopping experience, and have created a body of work that includes both finished and in-progress poems. We welcome applications from poets of all backgrounds and cultural communities throughout the U.S.
PREVIEW THE APPLICATION AND APPLY HERE!
Scholarships: Charlotte Lit has funds available for 2-3 partial scholarships. These need-based scholarships defray tuition costs. We’re not currently able to offer travel or lodging stipends for out-of-town participants. Accepted applicants can apply online. Scholarship decisions will be confirmed by December 10, 2024.