Poet Laureate Jen Cheng is a life-long educator who offers writing workshops in various settings, from libraries to other community spaces like a teahouse or co-working space. Students have enjoyed her writing workshops through West Hollywood Library, Queens Library, UCLA Extension, and Tin House. Virtual workshops are a great option to offer these educational resources to a larger audience.
Two popular workshops are:
- Feng Shui Poetry Writing
- Writing Memorable Characters
Feng Shui Poetry Writing Workshop
What we have to say can go through a lens of feelings or themes to help it be more powerful. We can transform quiet whispers into something more clear or loud feelings into something actionable. The Five Elements – Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood – are a way to meditate on your message.
This generative writing workshop offers introductory knowledge of the five elements, mindfulness meditation exercises to deepen our writing, reflection exercises, and in-class discussion. By reflecting on one topic through the lens of the Five Elements, students learn to expand their perspectives and tap into emotional agility. This workshop is available by request for community spaces, private events, wellness education for corporate programming, or other workplace programming.
Writing Memorable Characters
West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng offers a workshop to inspire memorable characters using prompts and improv exercises to sharpen characters for writers of all levels. Whether it’s narrative or poetry, bring your work-in-progress or start something new. We’ll create a safe space for you to discover fresh points of view.
This is a sample workshop that was hosted at West Hollywood Library.
Testimonials
“The meditation exercise helped me so that I can be more relaxed about writing.” – poetry student
“I like the different ways of approaching writing so that I can be more balanced.” – poetry student
“The focused writing exercises helped me write more than I usually do on my own.” – memoir writer
“The poetry workshop generated so much good writing for me and one of the poems from Jen’s workshop got selected for a journal!” – poetry student
More about Jen’s poetry
Read more about Jen’s work or buy her book on her poetry page. Please consider subscribing to her Substack to get the behind-the-scenes fun about poems and writing life.
To contact Jen, please email JenCvoice at gmail dot com
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Photo credits: Jen’s sunset photo at Mulholland Drive, by Kayte Deioma. Jen teaching at WeHo Library, by Karine Armen.
JEN CHENG 