Summer Poetry Program – 2026
Studio Channel Islands Art Center is excited to the launch the first strand of its educational programming in the field of Creative Writing. The Summer Poetry Program is a 10-week course in which participants will have the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills and expertise related to poetry writing.
The program will take place on Sundays, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., beginning July 12th and running through September 20th (there will be no instruction on August 16th; please note that Saturday, September 6th is during Labor Day Weekend). Sessions will be on site at Studio Channel Islands and will be divided into a morning seminar and afternoon intensive workshop, with a 30-minute lunch break.
Applicants do not need previous experience in poetry writing. This program will appeal to and is designed for both beginning and established poets.
Some of the seminar topics being covered will include the following: developing a strong writing process and routine; generating new ideas for written work; creating and approaching personalized reading lists; working with form, meter and rhyme; editing and self-editing; publishing; producing events; contributing to one’s poetry community. These will be faculty-led except for some guest-led seminars from other experts in the field. Supplementing the seminars will be several public lectures from professional poets taking place during the period the program is running.
Participants will be divided into two workshop groups, in which each poet will have three opportunities during the program to share works-in-progress for critical feedback in the style of a traditional MFA poetry workshop. Participants will also be further divided into one of the following three sub-groups of choice: Producers, Publishers and Teachers. These sub-groups will communicate independently of the Sunday sessions. Producers will be in charge of programming and delivering a reading showcase in the final week. Publishers will put together and print an anthology of the participants’ poems to be made available for the showcase. Teachers will help design a seminar session in the second half of the program and get hands-on experience with developing poetry workshops.
As part of the application, please include a sample of your poetry of up to five pages. The quality of the poetry will not determine the result of your application; this is just to give the faculty a sense of your style to help form the workshop groups.
Limited financial aid will be available to cover the full cost of tuition for applicants in need.
The Summer Poetry Program is made possible with the help of our organization’s newly-established Center for Literary Arts.
Deadline to Apply: June 28th
Faculty
Felice Alexandra is a poet-shaman, yogi, mentor, meditator and mother. She received her MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast MFA in Maine. She has performed her poetry all over the United States and Ireland. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many fine journals including Gyroscope Review, Segullah Review, Wayfare, Orogeny, The Christian Science Monitor, Askew and others. She is the winner of the 2025 Leon Priestnall Poetry Prize. She likes long walks on the beach and homemade rhubarb pie. Her first poetry chapbook is forthcoming from Channel Poetry Press.
Sean Colletti is a poet, producer and educator from Camarillo, California. He received his PhD in poetry from the University of Birmingham (UK). His first chapbook, Saeculum, was published by Bare Fiction in 2018. As a founding member of the Second City Poets collective, Sean was commissioned by Verve Poetry Festival to develop a spoken word show, Playground, which also ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was published as a full-length collection with Verve Poetry Press. He is a multi-winner of the UK’s intercollegiate team poetry slam, representing Birmingham as a performer and coach, and a winner of Dublin’s Slam Sunday. He is currently Events Coordinator at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, where he programs the Poetry in the Gallery series and serves as director of the Ventura County Poetry Festival. Sean is also a committee member for the Ventura County Poet Laureateship and is the founder and co-editor of the upcoming Channel Poetry Press.
