The Art of Line Breaks: Silence, Shape, and Surprise in Poetry 4-Week Intensive with Lindsay Tigue Starts Monday, November 2nd, 2026

Begins Monday, November 2nd, 2026 This is a 4-week asynchronous poetry workshop conducted via Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom, with one optional live Zoom meetup during Week 2 or 3 (scheduled at a time that works for the most participants). Now Enrolling! Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us. Instructor Lindsay Tigue is the author of System of Ghosts, which was the winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Poetry, Bennington Review, Prairie Schooner, Verse Daily, Indiana Review, and Hayden's Ferry Review, among other journals. She was a Tennessee Williams scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, a James Merrill fellow at the Vermont Studio Center, and a former assistant to the editors at the Georgia Review. She is a graduate of both the MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University and the PhD program in English/Creative Writing at the University of Georgia. She is a former professor of creative writing at Eastern New Mexico University and now works as an Educational Specialist at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Who is this class for? This online poetry workshop is for poets of all experience levels, from writers new to poetry who want to understand the power of the line break to more experienced poets looking to deepen their approach to lineation. Whatever your starting point, you'll leave with new strategies for using line breaks to shape meaning, music, tension, silence, and surprise — along with revised poems that reflect a more intentional approach to the poetic line. All levels are welcome. What to expect: Line breaks are among the most powerful tools available to poets. More than simply determining where a line ends, lineation shapes rhythm, pacing, syntax, tension, silence, and surprise. In this creative writing workshop, you'll explore how poets use line breaks to create meaning on the page and in the ear across a range of poetic styles and traditions — treating the line not as a decorative afterthought but as one of poetry's central meaning-making tools. Through close readings, generative exercises, and revision-focused experiments, you'll develop a more intentional and flexible approach to lineation. You'll revise poems in multiple ways to discover how line breaks alter momentum, emotional impact, sound, and meaning, building practical revision strategies you can carry into all of your future work. Rather than prescribing a single "correct" way to break a line, this online writing class helps you build a relationship to the poetic line that is your own. This course is asynchronous, so you complete each week's reading, discussion, and writing on your own schedule within Wet Ink. There will also be one optional live Zoom meetup during Week 2 or 3 — held at a time that works for the most participants — where the group will discuss one of the assigned poems, work through a generative prompt together, and share progress. What are the writing goals? In this course, students will produce four poems (new drafts and/or revisions of existing work), complete a series of generative and revision exercises focused on lineation, and develop practical revision strategies for using line breaks more intentionally in their own poems. Each student will receive individual instructor feedback on each of the four poems they submit. Readings may include excerpts from: The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach (Graywolf) — students purchase The Carrying by Ada Limón (Milkweed) — students purchase "Learning the Poetic Line" by Rebecca Hazelton (free online) Excerpts from A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, via Poets.org (free online). COURSE OUTLINE Week 1: The Poetic Line as Meaning-Making — Students explore how lineation shapes rhythm, pacing, syntax, tension, and surprise through readings from the first half of The Art of the Poetic Line alongside sample poems by contemporary and canonical poets. Through asynchronous discussion, close reading, and generative exercises, students draft or revise a poem with attention to intentional line breaks. Week 2: Syntax, Momentum, and the Break — Building on Week 1, students continue with the second half of The Art of the Poetic Line and begin reading selections from The Carrying, exploring how line breaks alter pacing, emotional movement, and meaning. Students complete writing and revision exercises that experiment with multiple lineations of the same poem. Week 3: Sound, Silence, and Shape — Students continue reading The Carrying alongside "Learning the Poetic Line" by Rebecca Hazelton. Through asynchronous discussion and revision-focused exercises, students explore how lineation creates sonic texture, pause, white space, and visual shape while writing or revising a poem centered on sound, silence, and the visual line. Week 4: Revision and Re-Lineation — Drawing on concepts from all course texts as well as excerpts from A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, students focus on revision as an opportunity to rethink and re-hear the poem through line breaks. Students revise and submit a final poem, experiment with alternative lineations, and reflect on strategies for developing a more intentional and flexible relationship to the poetic line in future work. An optional live Zoom meetup takes place during Week 2 or 3 at a time that works for the most participants, where the group discusses one of the assigned poems, works through a generative prompt, and shares progress. COURSE TAKEAWAYS: Four new and/or revised poems that reflect a more intentional, deliberate approach to lineation A toolkit of generative and revision exercises centered on the line break Practical strategies for using line breaks to shape rhythm, syntax, tension, sound, silence, and surprise A more flexible, confident relationship to the poetic line as an active meaning-making tool Individual written feedback from the instructor on all four submitted poems TESTIMONIALS: "The class engagement, the course organization, Lindsay's critiques, and class materials. I also loved the opportunity to chat with Lindsay on Zoom. The course exceeded my expectations. Lindsay is great. Thank you!" -Olga A. "I found the readings and my classmates' poetry contributions especially valuable. The class exceeded my expectations. I only wish it was longer!" -Jacinta K. "I loved generating poems after reading the multiple essays in the reference material. I would highly recommend this class. Lindsay is great!" -Former Student "I took the 4-Week Online Prose Poetry Workshop: Writing the Prose Poem with Lindsay Tigue. This class definitely exceeded my expectations. I enjoyed the variety and creativity of the prompts and the thoroughness of the material, both of which made me feel like I was constantly learning something new. I really appreciated the course structure and the depth of the material. It was helpful to have a lesson with plenty of reading material and examples before writing my own pieces." -Former Student ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: This class is asynchronous, meaning you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices. Along with your weekly deadlines, there is plenty of interaction with the instructor and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback in the online classroom. You can finish the work as you see fit, week to week, which is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever they find most compelling and/or useful. The instructor engages with these discussions throughout the week, and you will receive feedback on all assigned writing activities. HOW DOES WET INK WORK? Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive. PAYMENT OPTIONS: Tuition is $330 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.