Poetry in conversation with visual art is called ekphrasis. As poet Edward Hirsch has noted, ekphrastic writing “braves the mystery dividing the seen from the unseen,” and teaches us “to look and look again more closely.” In this creative writing workshop, you’ll practice looking and writing more deeply through the lens of color in abstract and figurative works. We’ll approach the art of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art as portals into memories, experience, and imagination. We’ll also offer you a booklet that includes sample poems and the images that sparked them, as well as prompts to get you started. We’ll share how ekphrasis can unfold into an opportunity to create community and artistic magic. At the end of this workshop, we will collaborate on a poem, with everyone invited (though not required!) to share their work or questions about the writing process and the connection between visual art and poetry, also known as the sister arts.
Alexandra Lytton Regalado is a Salvadoran-American author, translator, and editor. She is the author of Relinquenda (National Poetry Series Winner, Beacon Press, 2022), and Matria (St. Lawrence Book Award, Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Her recent work has appeared in New England Review, The Common, Poetry, AGNI, World Literature Today, and Poem-a-Day, and has been anthologized in Best American Poetry and the Library of America’s Latino Poetry. She has translated several book-length collections of Latin American poetry and serves as series translator for the Alta California Chapbook Prize. A CantoMundo fellow, she is co-founding editor of Kalina Press (est. 2006) and associate editor at SWWIM. alexandralyttonregalado.
Emma Trelles is the daughter of Cuban immigrants and author of Tropicalia (University of Notre Dame Press), winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. Her current manuscript Courage and the Clock was a finalist for the 2026 Louise Bogan Award for poetry and shortlisted for the 2025 Donald Hall Prize. She is the ninth Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, California, and the recipient of an Established Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council and a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. A graduate CantoMundo Fellow, her translations were longlisted in the Best Literary Translations 2027 anthology, and her work recently appears in Poetry International; New England Review; Poetry; and the Academy’s Poem-A-Day series. She is series editor of the Alta California Chapbook Prize, open to Latine poets in the U.S. and published in bilingual editions by Gunpowder Press. emmatrelles.com
Hirsch, Edward, ed. Transforming Vision: Writers on Art, Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1994.