Monster Mash: Towards a Poetics of Radical Monsterhood

Workshop Description: What are we saying when we call something a “monster?” The word itself is thought to come from the Latin word monstrare, meaning 'to demonstrate'. In this sense, a monster is quite literally demonstrative—it reveals a deeper truth about a society that unsettles or challenges its dominant narratives. The monster is an inverted mirror exposing our warped perceptions, anxieties, and social values. As a result, monstrosity has been applied to dehumanize and vilify perceived Others based on race, gender, ability, and other socio-cultural factors. At the same time, monsterhood offers a powerful means by which we might reject and work beyond the violence of forces like white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, or heteronormativity. 

In this workshop, we’ll explore the work of poets who have reinvented and repurposed classic monster narratives for their own radical ends. We’ll craft poems that write against as well as through the tropes and values…