Jo McDougall is available to travel to your venue as a visiting writer, conducting craft talks and workshops as well as readings. Below are a few topics McDougall has originated and presented. Presentations can be tailored to the needs of your students, participants, and audiences. Contact Jo McDougall today!

CRAFT TALKS, WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS

Selected listings:

“Narrative, Place, and Dramatic Situation.” – Poetry writing workshop for adults and discussion of film, Emerson County Shaping Dream. For middle and high school students. Round Top Poetry Festival, Round Top, Texas. April 17, 2009.

“Finding the Poem in Your Poem: Some Nuts and Bolts of Writing Poetry.”
Poetry writing workshop. Conducted as a featured writer.
Round Top Poetry Festival. Round Top, Texas. April 18-19, 2009.

“A Poet Writes a Memoir and Lives to Tell the Story.”
The pros and cons of switching genres.
Johnson County Central Resource Library. Overland Park, Kansas. August 19, 2008.

Visiting Writer, Meramec Literary Festival.
St. Louis Community College. St. Louis, Missouri. April 2,3, 2008.

"Who Are Your Kin? Influences and the Writing Life."
Lyon College. Batesville, Arkansas. October 2007.

Visiting Poet, Shady Side Academy.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Conducted poetry revision workshop, Tom Murphy’s poetry writing class. October 11-13, 2006.

Eighth Annual Eugene DeGruson Memorial Lecture. October 20th, 2005. Special Collections Department, Axe Library. Pittsburg State University. Details in Link.

Master Class in Poetry.
Analysis of student poems and a mini-course in form and theory of poetry. The Writers Garret.
Dallas, Texas. With Miller Williams. February 26, 2005.

Master Class in Poetry. “On Showing, Not Telling.”
A discussion of the film, Emerson County Shaping Dream, and the value of the dramatic situation.
Nimrod International Magazine Workshop and Conference. Tulsa, Oklahoma. October 23, 2004.

“Live Poets Society: Using Today’s Poetry to Introduce Yesterday’s Classics.”
Discussion of contemporary poetry and the film, Emerson County Shaping Dream.
Presenter, Arkansas Reading Conference for secondary school teachers. Little Rock, Arkansas. November 13, 2003.

“How Poets See.” Discussion of my poems and film, Emerson County Shaping Dream.
Paula Coomer’s Poetry Writing class. As Visiting Writer.
Washington State University. Pullman, Washington. November 7, 2002.

“Imagery, Tone, and Pacing in the Writing of Poems.”
Linda Kinnahan’s undergraduate poetry writing workshop.
Duquesne University. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. April 25, 2002.

“Miller Williams as Poet’s Poet: The Meddlesome Poems of Miller Williams and What I’ve Learned.”
On panel with Ed Cifelli, Dana Gioia, R. S. Gwyn. Topic: Critic’s Poet, Poet’s Poet, People's Poet: A Tribute to Miller Williams.
Associated Writing Programs Conference. New Orleans, Louisiana. March 8, 2002.

“Surprise Is What We Live For or I’m an Essay Writer; What’s Poetry Got to Do With Me?” and “The Three C’s of Writing: Making Connections, Comparisons, and Conversions.”
Living Literature Series. Freshman writing classes, lectures on finding one’s style in writing through poetry.
Tarrant County College. Hurst, Texas. February 22, 2002.

“The Phenomenological World: Making Connections.”
Jack Myers’ undergraduate creative writing class.
Southern Methodist University. Dallas, Texas. February 21, 2002.

“Connect and Compare: What Poets Do.”
Maryneal Porter’s pre-AP class.
Stuttgart Junior High School. Stuttgart, Arkansas. January 31, 2002.

“The Nitty-Gritty of Show, Don’t Tell: A Poet and a Filmmaker Collaborate to Make a Film, Emerson County Shaping Dream.”
Co-Director, workshop with Don Maxwell.
Associated Writing Programs Conference. Palm Springs, California. April 2001.

“Line Breaks, Fulcrums, and Closure.”
Hope Coulter’s Writing Poetry class.
Hendrix College. Conway, Arkansas. February 1, 2001.

“What Elements Do I Look For and How Do They Mean? A Ten-Step Outline For Explicating a Poem.”
Pedagogy Forum (Creative Writing).
Associated Writing Programs Conference. Kansas City, Missouri. April 2000.

“Listening to Silences or What a Poem Says When It’s Not Talking: Motion and Counter-Motion.”
Institute on Poetics.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. December 1999.

“Dramatic Situation, Imagery, and Closure.”
Director, Poetry Workshop. Arkansas Poets Roundtable. Little Rock, Arkansas.
Oct. 16, 1999.

“Roots and Recognition: Where Poetry Comes From.”
Arkansas Writers Conference. Little Rock, Arkansas. June 6, 1997.

“Can You Tell the Gender of the Poet by the Voice in the Poem? A Discussion of Selected Poems.”
Topic: Gender Stereotypes in the Creative Writing Workshop. Panel member.
Associated Writing Programs Conference. Atlanta, Georgia. April 1996.

“The Pros and Cons of Collaboration Across Genres.”
Workshop with Don Maxwell. Arkansas premiere of film, Emerson County Shaping Dream.
Central Arkansas Library. Little Rock. September 20, 2001.

“Recognizing Your Stories.”
Sally Crisp’s Writing as Biography class.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock. December 3, 1996.

“Tone and the Grace of Irony in Poems.”
Samuel Clemens Writers Conference (University of Missouri-Kansas City).
College of the Ozarks. June 21-26, 1990.

“The World and Word of Poetry: Using the Phenomenological World.”
Samuel Clemens Writers Conference (UMKC).
Excelsior Springs, Missouri. May 22- 27, 1988.

“Sense and Resonance in Poems.” Ibid.

“Cousins, All: How Genres Interact.”
Director of workshops in, and lecturer on, poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction.
Siloam Springs Writers Group. Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Summer, 1988.

“The Writer and the Uses of Loneliness: Poems as Files for Experience.”
Symposium on Women Using the Arts: Coping with a Society Hooked on Youth and Glamour.
University of Missouri at Kansas City. May 21, 1988.