Two Sylvias Press

11/04/2025

It’s not too late to join The Weekly Muse — your weekly dose of poetry prompts, inspiration, and community (and access to ALL our Zoom classes!) 💻 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

In this harsh world, you need to take care of yourself and your writing time. For less than $20 a month, you’ll receive creative fuel every Sunday morning plus be part of these incredible upcoming events (all recorded so you don't have to attend in real time and can watch at your leisure!):

📅 November 7 — Jane Wong: “On Deep Image”
📅 December 8 — Kelli Russell Agodon & Melissa Studdard: “The Art of Collaboration”
📅 January 22 — Marie Howe: “When a Poet Contradicts Herself”
📅 February 11 — Traci Brimhall: “Sweet & Spicy: Poems of Love and Desire”
…and more surprises coming soon!

💌 Each week you’ll get new prompts, submission calls, and creative encouragement straight to your inbox — designed to help you protect your writing time and reconnect with your craft (even in tough times). Plus, we share YOUR good news with our audience!

Not ready to commit? Try it for a month — if it’s not for you, one click and you’re out.

⭐️ What poets are saying:

“The Weekly Muse is worth it for the Zoom classes alone--all the rest is gravy! I wish I would have known about this sooner.”
~ Jane H., poet and educator

Join us here → https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

Let’s write our way through the world — together. ✨✍️

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

11/01/2025

✨ JANE WONG is BACK to lead a NEW Zoom Class! ✨

Join us this Friday, November 7th at 5 pm PST for her online workshop “On Deep Image.” Jane's last class was phenomenal and we’re so thrilled to have her back! Definitely don’t miss this chance to learn from one of our most inspiring teachers! 💫

(Can’t make it live? No worries — the class will be recorded and sent to you!)

How to attend? Become a paid subscriber of The Weekly Muse — just $18.99/month or get the best deal at $198/year to join us for ALL our upcoming classes with poets like Marie Howe (January), Traci Brimhall (February), Kelli Russell Agodon & Melissa Studdard (December), and more!

👉 Subscribe here & receive the Zoom registration link immediately in your Welcome Letter: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

AND as a special gift, we'll also send you Ellen Bass' class, The Long Armed Poem: Controlled Chaos just for signing up! (Oh yeah, you'll also get a year of poetry prompts and more every Sunday too!)

Class Description (don’t miss this!):
On Deep Image: How can we create an image to encapsulate an idea, an emotion, a state of mind? We will explore the power of imagery as a means of crystallizing emotional weight. We will seek out the sensory world to dive into what Robert Bly calls “the deep image.” We will consider poems rich with layered imagery, including poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Jungmin Yoon, and Leila Chatti.

🪶 See you Friday, poets — this one’s going to be fantastic!
https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

10/28/2025

✨Our Virtual Poetry Prompt Advent Calendar is BACK!✨

A favorite seasonal tradition for poets (and anyone who wants to end the year with creativity and joy)!

From December 1–31, unlock a new poetry prompt each day—just click your calendar and let the writing begin.

🎁 Oh, and yes—you can give it as a gift!

To learn more, go to:
https://www.twosylviaspress.com/advent-calendar-prompts.html

IT'S BACK! ​ The Two Sylvias Press Advent Calendar is filled with surprise prompts to help you write 31 new poems in December! Our online virtual Advent Calendar is easy to use--simply click on...

10/22/2025

🌟 Big News, Poets! 🌟 MARIE HOWE is our GUEST POET for January!

We’re organizing our 2025–2026 Weekly Muse Zoom Poetry Series and are absolutely thrilled to announce that Marie Howe will be joining us on January 22, 2026 — what a way to begin the new year! 🎉

Join The Weekly Muse (only $3 a week with a yearly sign-up—the best value we offer!) and enjoy every class in our Zoom Poetry Series (you'll even receive PAST classes with Jane Hirshfield and Dorianne Laux!!) 👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

UPCOMING CLASSES:
🍁 November 7: Jane Wong — Deep Image
🎄 December 8: Kelli Russell Agodon & Melissa Studdard — Poetry Collaborations
✨ January 22: Marie Howe — On Poetry & the Creative Process
💘 February 11: Traci Brimhall — Sweet & Spicy: Poems of Love & Desire

💻 All classes are recorded, so you can revisit them anytime.

And that’s just the beginning—by subscribing you also receive:

📝 A weekly newsletter filled with poetry prompts, submission calls, writing exercises, and literary news
💌 Good news from our community (we love celebrating you!)
💫 The occasional pep talk
🌿 A private online space to share work, encouragement, and connection

The Weekly Muse has been called “the ultimate poetry resource for poets writing today!”

Come see what you’ve been missing—and spend an evening (or a replay!) with Marie Howe and write & publish more in our amazing Muse community. 🤩 Open to ALL poets from beginning to published author!

Sign up today so not to miss out any further 👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

09/08/2025

Announcing the 2025 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize Winner!

Our contest judge, Ellen Bass, has chosen "Detail from an Illustration of Paradise" by BENJAMIN S. GROSSBERG as the winner of the 2025 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize!

The runner-up is "Man Without a Skirt" by José Enrique Medina.

Here is the full list of the Finalists:
José A. Alcántara
Gayle Brandeis
Fleda Brown
Allison Burris
Tyler Dunston
Carlos Andrés Gómez
Andrea L. Hackbarth
Julie Kane
Susan L. Leary
Brooke Sahni
Laura Theis
Anna Ellyn Wagner
Zachariah Claypole White
Jeff Whitney

Congratulations to Benjamin, José, and to all of the Finalists!

Benjamin S. Grossberg’s latest collection, "My Husband Would" (University of Tampa, 2020), won the 2021 Connecticut Book Award. His earlier books include "Sweet Core Orchard" (University of Tampa, 2009), winner of a Lambda Literary Award. He also wrote the novel, "The Spring before Obergefell" (University of Nebraska Press, 2024), which was selected by Percival Everett for the AWP Award Series James Alan McPherson Prize.

Benjamin's chapbook "Detail from an Illustration of Paradise" will be published in Fall of 2026.

09/04/2025

🌿✨ Women Poets over 50: Submissions Are Open! ✨🌿

The Two Sylvias Press Wilder Prize is looking for full-length poetry manuscripts! (We recommend 48 - 80 pages of poems but can be longer).

The winner will receive $1,000, publication by Two Sylvias Press and 20 author copies of their book.

📚 We welcome emerging and established poets as well as international submissions!

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2025

➡️ Submit your manuscript today: https://www.twosylviaspress.com/wilder-series-poetry-book-prize.html

📖 We look forward to reading your poems!

2025 Wilder Series Poetry Book Prize : A Poetry Contest for Women Over Age 50 Deadline: Dec. 31, 2025 Judges: The Editors of Two Sylvias Press: Kelli Russell Agodon & Annette Spaulding-Convy...

08/30/2025

Poets-- Last call to write poems on Zoom with Ellen Bas 🧡
September 11 from 4–6 pm PST

✨ How to join us?
Sign up for the Weekly Muse (monthly for $18.99 or get a whole YEAR of Zoom poetry classes AND weekly poetry prompts for $198!) here:
👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

And yes, the class will be recorded! If you can’t make it live, you’ll have access to the replay whenever you’re ready. The Zoom registration link to Ellen’s class will arrive immediately in your WELCOME LETTER!
👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

Let’s write some new poems! (Class Description below!)
______________________________

Class Description: The Long-Armed Poem (or Controlled Chaos)
A certain kind of poem has a long arm and sweeps disparate, unexpected things into its net. It scoops in a great deal of material that is more or less obviously related. It doesn’t hug the shore. It doesn’t walk a narrow line. It retains a kind of wildness. It can seem untamed. And yet all the elements have enough magnetic or gravitational attraction, enough resonance, that the poem feels organically whole. We’ll look at examples of the long-armed poem and I will give some practical suggestions about how you might experiment with this form in your own poems.

Register here 👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

08/01/2025

Want to write poems on Zoom with Ellen Bass? 🧡

Join us September 11 from 4–6 pm PST for Ellen’s class:
The Long-Armed Poem / Controlled Chaos — a workshop on poems that stretch wide, gather the unexpected, and still feel whole. Ellen will share examples and offer practical ways to try this form in your own work.

✨ How to join us?
Sign up for the Weekly Muse (monthly for $18.99 or get a whole YEAR of Zoom poetry classes for $198!) here:
👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

When you sign up, you'll also get Weekly Poetry Prompts & Writing Exercises from the editors at Two Sylvias Press in our Weekly Muse museletter 💌

Oh—and yes, the class will be recorded! If you can’t make it live, you’ll have access to the replay whenever you’re ready. You’ll get the registration link to Ellen’s class in your WELCOME LETTER 📨
👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

Let’s write some new poems! (Class Description below!)
______________________________

Class Description: The Long-Armed Poem (or Controlled Chaos)

A certain kind of poem has a long arm and sweeps disparate, unexpected things into its net. It scoops in a great deal of material that is more or less obviously related. It doesn’t hug the shore. It doesn’t walk a narrow line. It retains a kind of wildness. It can seem untamed. And yet all the elements have enough magnetic or gravitational attraction, enough resonance, that the poem feels organically whole. We’ll look at examples of the long-armed poem and I will give some practical suggestions about how you might experiment with this form in your own poems.

👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

07/27/2025

📣 LAST DAY to Register for the August Online Poetry Retreat!!!

✍️ Want to end the summer writing new poems? We got you!
twosylviaspress.com/online-poetry-retreat.html

We send you poetry exercises and inspiring example poems all month to keep you writing. THEN at the end, you'll also receive a detailed critique & response to one of your poems from our guest poets:
Diane Seuss, Traci Brimhall, Danusha Laméris, or Jennifer K. Sweeney. (And you can choose who you want to work with!)

📬 And yes--everything is delivered by email—write from anywhere, on your own schedule.

📅 Retreat Sessions
🌻 August 4–31 (a few spots remaining)
🍂 October 6–Nov 2 (Critique from Two Sylvias Press editors)

Space is limited, so hurry to register here:
🔗 twosylviaspress.com/online-poetry-retreat.html

📝 Note: The material is the same for both sessions—please sign up for only one.

07/25/2025

✍️🚨 LAST CHANCE to be part of Jane Hirshfield's Zoom Poetry Salon and Q&A this Monday, July 28 🗓️ AND join Ellen Bass' 2-hour writing class, "The Long-Armed Poem / Controlled Chaos!"

How to register?
Become a monthly ($18.99) or yearly ($198) subscriber of our Weekly Muse 🌟:
👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe
The links to register for BOTH classes will arrive in your Welcome Letter! 📩

Can't make the classes live? No worries—🎥 we record every Zoom class and send it to you later!

And if you find the Weekly Muse museletter isn't your thing? No hard feelings—just one click, and you're out! ❌💌

Sign up here: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

07/10/2025

Poetry lovers, it's time to REGISTER!—✨ Spend an evening with Jane Hirshfield in an intimate conversation on poetry (plus a live Q&A!), and take a two-hour generative class with Ellen Bass!

Subscribe to the Two Sylvias Weekly Muse and you’ll get instant access to register for both events—links arrive right in your welcome letter. Join us here: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

✨ But what is the Weekly Muse?? ✨

Think of it as your all-inclusive creative getaway—no airfare required. Spend the summer (and winter!) writing new poems and staying connected to the poetry world.

A subscription to The Weekly Muse gives you everything you need to stay inspired and moving forward with your writing.

Here's what you get EVERY Sunday morning to help organize and prioritize your writing life:

✦ Weekly poetry prompts & creativity exercises
✦ Curated lists of places to submit your work
✦ Publication tips & your questions answered by our editors
✦ Interviews with well-known poets
✦ Pep talks when you need them most
✦ The latest research on creativity (yes, actual studies)
✦ A private & nurturing online community
✦ Zoom classes with major poets (this summer: Jane Hirshfield & Ellen Bass!!)
✦ And, we share your publication news with the whole community!

The Weekly Muse is your literary salon, creative classroom, and poetry toolkit—all delivered to your inbox every Sunday. Our Zoom classes alone are valued at over $2000 a year, but you get everything for just about $4 a week ($18.99/month or $198/year for the best deal).

Try it for a month—or dive in for the year. If it’s not your thing, unsubscribe with a single click. No hoops, no hassle. We keep it easy so you can stay focused on what matters: your writing.

Join the hundreds of poets and writers who count The Weekly Muse as their creative anchor.

Join our Weekly Muse community and experience what so many writers are already benefiting from—plus enjoy two incredible poetry classes with Jane Hirshfield and Ellen Bass to boot!

Register here 👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

_________________________
Join Jane Hirshfield for an evening of discussing poetry, creative process, and Jane and a live Q&A of YOUR questions!

Join Ellen Bass' for her 2-hour generative class "The Long-Armed Poem."

Description: A certain kind of poem has a long arm and sweeps disparate, unexpected things into its net. It scoops in a great deal of material that is more or less obviously related. It doesn’t hug the shore. It doesn’t walk a narrow line. It retains a kind of wildness. It can seem untamed. And yet all the elements have enough magnetic or gravitational attraction, enough resonance, that the poem feels organically whole. We’ll look at examples of the long-armed poem and I will give some practical suggestions about how you might experiment with this form in your own poems.

To be part of this class, become a paid subscriber to the Weekly Muse here and the registration links for BOTH these classes will be sent to you immediately in your Welcome Letter: Register here 👉 https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription! Click to read Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse,...

07/08/2025

It’s back for the 10th year! Our annual (and popular!) ONLINE SUMMER/FALL POETRY RETREAT is open for sign-ups!

Have one of your poems critiqued by DIANE SEUSS, TRACI BRIMHALL, DANUSHA LAMÉRIS, or JENNIFER K. SWEENEY for the summer session. Fall session poems will be critiqued by the editors of Two Sylvias Press.

We send you poetry prompts and example poems to inspire your writing—ALL VIA EMAIL.

2025 Retreat Sessions Available:
August 4 - August 31 (August Session)
October 6 - November 2 (October Session)

Choose the session that best fits your schedule and sign up! Space is limited! Please visit our website to register: https://twosylviaspress.com/online-poetry-retreat.html

Please Note: The material for each retreat is the same--so please sign up for only one session.

​Two Sylvias Press 2025 Online Poetry Retreat (Open!) 2025 Retreat Sessions Available: June 30 - July 27 (July Session) (Filled and Closed) August 4 - August 31 (August Session) October 6 -...