ADVANCE YOUR CRAFT: Revision Workshop with Writeaways

Get expert help revising original poems for publication or performance by two expert workshop facilitators, alongside 8 fellow poets.

Lean into the push-and-pull of revision with seasoned coaches Mimi Herman and John Yewell, the directors of Writeaways Writing Workshop Retreats. Bring an original poem to share, discuss, and revise, based on expert feedback. Space is limited so register early!

Advance Your Craft, a 2026 Triangle Poetry Festival experience, provides comprehensive, rigorous advancement for the poet looking to hone their revisionary skills. Be sure to check out the full weekend of other great programming at Triangle Poetry Festival, celebrating the artists, the heart-leading advocates, and the movers in the margins. 

The Writeaways Workshop Method

Hat #1: When you wear your writer hat, we ask you to be open to suggestions and “what-ifs” offered in the workshop. We do everything in a spirit of searching for answers: What has the writer gotten right? What has the writer overlooked? How can the writing be improved?

Hat #2: When you wear your listener hat, we ask you to be constructive without assuming you have all the answers. The best service each of us can provide is to help each other see blind spots. We ask you to be rigorous in your attention to craft, with the intention of understanding what the writer is trying to do and improving the work. Our goal is to help each person’s writing be what it wants to be when it grows up.

About the Facilitators:

John Yewell and Mimi Herman – Writeaways

John Yewell and Mimi Herman are the directors of Writeaways, which provides weeklong writing workshop-retreats at a chateau in France, a villa in Italy, an elegant adobe in New Mexico, and an historic Georgian mansion in North Carolina. 

John is a writer and editor with an MFA in fiction from San Francisco State University and twenty years of experience in journalism. Most recently he is the author—and publisher—of The Botsworth Dossier, the first novel printed entirely on broadsheet newsprint. Through his brilliant eye for plot and ear for dialogue, John has mastered the art of engaging readers and helping other writers discover their own stories. 

Mimi writes fiction and poetry and is the author of The Kudzu Queen, selected by NC Humanities for the 2023 Library of Congress “Great Reads from Great Places” program, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, shortlisted for the Cabell First Novelist Award, and featured in Our State, in its winter 2026 issue as one of its recommended “6 Timeless Winter Reads.” Mimi has served on the Board of Directors for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, and is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, a Warren Wilson MFA alumna, and a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow.

Triangle Poetry Festival is a Third Angle Poets Production.

About Third Angle Poets at Boxyard RTP:

Founded in 2024, Third Angle Poets is a collective of seasoned arts organizers from across the Triangle. In partnership with Boxyard RTP, Third Angle creates one-of-a-kind interactive events for poets and changemakers to share their voice, hone their craft, and collaborate for social good – including the quarterly Poets’ Playground series and Triangle Poetry Festival. By showcasing poetry, we seek to foster vulnerability and trust. By catalyzing conversations between artists and activists, we help meet the immediate- and long-term needs of our community—while fueling our souls.

Note: By participating in this event, you consent to the recording of your likeness, image, and/or voice and authorize Boxyard RTP to use photographs, video, and audio recordings containing your likeness, image, and/or voice in any medium for any purpose.

Got questions? Send us an email at hello@boxyardrtp.com.