Lyrical Sanctuary feat. Steven Espada Dawson

Lyrical Sanctuary Featuring Steven Espada Dawson 

Wednesday, September 9 | Workshop, Open Mic & Performance 

6:00 PM – 6:45 PM | Creative Writing Workshop | Union 119 

Embracing Change: On Trapdoors, Trojan Horses, and Quicksand 

In this generative workshop, we will explore how the trajectory of a poem changes—not only in subject, but in pressure, direction, temperature, music, and emotional truth. Together, we will look at the concept of the volta, or “turn,” and consider how a poem might pivot suddenly or slowly: like a trapdoor opening beneath the speaker, a Trojan Horse revealing what it has been carrying all along, or quicksand quietly changing the ground beneath us. 

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Open Mic & Feature Performance | Union Fireside Lounge 

Steven Espada Dawson is the author of Late to the Search Party (Scribner, 2025). From East Los Angeles and the son of a Mexican immigrant, he has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. His poems appear in many journals and have been anthologized in Sarabande’s Another Last Call, Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and Pushcart Prize. He has served as a poetry editor for Copper Nickel and Sycamore Review and has taught creative writing at universities, libraries, and prisons across the country. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he serves as poet laureate.