WHAT if WORKS

In October 2018 Emily Dickinson and her brother Austin visited thirteen middle schools throughout Miami Dade County to share Emily’s poetry and mentor poetry writing. One-hundred and twenty submissions were reviewed by graduates in poetry from the Creative Writing program at Florida International University, with the final thirteen selected by Richard Blanco, Denise Duhamel and Ana Menendez. Poems were based on the themes of “Friendship”, “Trust” and Truth” Spoken word, rap and hip-hop, native languages and rhymed or unrhymed verse were all encouraged. Thirteen middle school students shared in public their fourteen-line sonnets at a final “Dickinson’s Young Poets Celebration.”