Poetry can be a personal and autobiographical artform, we often use material from our own lives to craft poems. But can we write beyond the self without losing the power of our themes and passions?

Persona poetry, defined by the Academy of American Poets as “poetry in which the poet speaks through an assumed voice . . . also known as a dramatic monologue,” offers the chance to leap into other selves in order to write potent, innovative and often surprising poetry.

Join poet Anna Saunders to explore the difference between the subject and the persona of the poem, and to write your own fire cracker persona poems inspired by the likes of “Pig Song” by Margaret Atwood and “Sun” by Hadara Bar-Nadav-
 “Bow down / in the brilliance / of your borrowed light. / Let me ignite / your end.”

Anna Saunders is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew, The Prohibition of Touch, Eurydice in the Ruined House, (all from Indigo Dreams).