Replay: Adrian Matejka shares Five Things He's Learned about Building a Book
Check out the first five minutes of his recent class.
“I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose,—words in their best order; poetry,—the best words in their best order.”
– Adrian Matejka, Five Things I’ve Learned about Building a Book
Last week, poet, teacher, and Editor-in-Chief of Poetry magazine Adrian Matejka joined Five Things I've Learned to share all he’s learned about the complicated and animating process of turning a stack of poems into a cohesive poetry collection.
In Five Things I’ve Learned about Building a Book, Adrian offers an in-depth look at the art and craft of shaping a poetry manuscript. Participants explore practical strategies for organizing poems—through theme, imagery, sequencing, and structure—while learning how subtle choices such as titles, ordering, and poem placement strengthen both individual pieces and the book as a whole.
Whether you’re beginning a new project or refining a nearly finished manuscript, this session provides tools, clarity, and inspiration for building the poetry collection you truly want to make. Offered in partnership with the Conscious Writers Collective, the class combines rigorous instruction with an inclusive, MFA-free ethos—giving writers at any stage actionable guidance and a supportive community to accompany them on their book-building journey.
About Adrian: Adrian is the Editor of Poetry magazine. He was born in Germany as part of a military family. He grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Adrian is the author of The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003) which won the New York / New England Award and Mixology (Penguin, 2009), a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series. His third collection, The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013), was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The Big Smoke was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His next collection, Map to the Stars, was published by Penguin in 2017.
His mixed media collaboration with Nicholas Galanin and Kevin Neireiter inspired by Funkadelic, Standing on the Verge & Maggot Brain (Third Man Books), was published in 2021. His most recent collection of poems, Somebody Else Sold the World (Penguin, 2021), was a finalist for the UNT 2022 Rilke Prize and the 2022 Indiana Authors Award. His first graphic novel Last On His Feet:Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century was published in February 2023 by Liveright.
Among Adrian other honors are the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award, the Julia Peterkin Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a Simon Fellowship from United States Artists. He served as Poet Laureate of the state of Indiana in 2018-19. He currently lives in Chicago.
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