Litfield is a place to:
- Find a home in the world of writing
- Learn craft through online classes with acclaimed writers
- Relish your writing practice
- Re-connect to a sense of wonder and meaning
- Find refuge in a community of writers led by award winning poet Danusha Laméris
We offer classes in several formats: webinars, small zoom rooms, and pre-recorded craft talks, (to name a few), and our mission is to keep expanding the ways we can connect writers to the page, to each other and to the world around us.
Many of us dream of being writers, having a writing practice, and publishing books.
This is a place to find support and guidance in reaching for those goals, while also developing writing rituals that deepen and enhance your experience of life.
A writer is a professional observer
~Susan Sontag
Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer
~Simone Weil
Here at Litfield, we believe in you. We believe the small (or loud) voice that led you here, is also taking you closer to a fuller expression of who you are. That you are here for a reason. And that’s why we curate classes with a host of smart, skilled and lauded writers to guide you along the way.
Gift a Year of Litfield to Someone You Love
Between now and December 24, you can offer a year in Litfield to someone who is drawn to poetry and writing as both a craft and a way of deepening connection --to themselves, to others, and to the natural world.
This gift is for those who value reflection, craft, and conversation. Membership begins with our January 2026 enrollment, when recipients will be welcomed into the community alongside the rest of the cohort.
You may choose to send the gift certificate yourself or have us deliver it on December 25 with your message included.
Three paths to explore:
Webinars and Classes
Upcoming Guests
Community
Upcoming Classes and Webinars
There is no current class or webinar scheduled. However, we will be scheduling more classes in the near future. Sign up to our newsletter to keep yourself informed of future offerings.
As a holiday gift, visit Litfield for one day with one of our Field Notes events.
Wednesday, December 17th
5pm to 6pm Pacific Time
This is a live Zoom Meeting
Dorianne Laux will be in conversation about craft with Danusha Laméris. Dorianne will also be reading some of her poems.
Register for Free
Upcoming Guests in our Litfield Community
LEARN MORE
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning poet, editor, and teacher known for her work exploring cultural connection and shared humanity. Born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, she grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, and has spent over four decades leading writing workshops around the world.
She is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including 19 Varieties of Gazelle, Everything Comes Next, and Grace Notes: Poems About Families. Her work spans poetry, fiction, and anthologies for both adults and young readers, earning honors such as the National Book Award finalist, four Pushcart Prizes, and the 2024 Wallace Stevens Award.
A former poetry editor for The Texas Observer and New York Times Magazine, Nye is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and teaches creative writing at Texas State University.
Vincent Rendoni
Vincent Antonio Rendoni is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Dead Chicano Mixtape (Red Hen Press, 2027) and A Grito Contest in the Afterlife (Catamaran, 2022), winner of the Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets as selected by Dorianne Laux. His work has appeared in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ninth Letter, Pleiades, Quarterly West, and december. Currently, he is a Seattle Arts and Lectures Writer in Residence at Garfield High School.
Dorianne Laux
Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection, Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her fifth collection, The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux is also the author of Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition, The Book of Women. She is the co-author of the celebrated text The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Her latest collection of poetry is Life On Earth and was released in January of 2024. Finger Exercises for Poets, a book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets was released in July 2024.
Ellen Bass
Ellen Bass’s most recent collection, Indigo, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. Her other poetry books include Like a Beggar, The Human Line, and Mules of Love. Her poems appear frequently in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and many other journals. Among her awards are Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The NEA, and The California Arts Council, The Lambda Literary Award, and four Pushcart Prizes. She co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, No More Masks!, and her nonfiction books include the groundbreaking The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth. A Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets, Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz, California jails, and teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University.
Maggie Smith
Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1977, Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful; My Thoughts Have Wings, a picture book illustrated by SCBWI Portfolio grand prize winner Leanne Hatch; the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change; as well as Good Bones, named one of the Best Five Poetry Books of 2017 by the Washington Post and winner of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Poetry; The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, winner of the 2012 Dorset Prize and the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Poetry; and Lamp of the Body, winner of the 2003 Benjamin Saltman Award.
Maggie Smith’s newest book is Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, from Atria/Simon & Schuster.
A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received six Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her poems have been widely published and anthologized, appearing in Best American Poetry, the New York Times, and The New Yorker, among many others. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, on the Poetry Foundation website, and elsewhere.
In 2016 Maggie Smith’s poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally, receiving coverage in various national publications. PRI (Public Radio International) called it “the official poem of 2016." In 2017 the poem was featured on an episode of CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary, also called “Good Bones,” and was read by Meryl Streep at Lincoln Center.
