Write the Poems You Need to Write

And deepen your craft

Starting this August 20th, 2026

Thursdays 2pm to 4pm Pacific Time

Join Danusha in a 5 month Field Guide Mentorship for a select group of up to 8 writers. This is more than a series of workshops. It's an opportunity to develop to your next stage as a poet. You will learn how to lean into your strengths and stay connected to the Why of writing. while taking your work deeper.

We all want to write our strongest work in our own, truest voice

Through workshops, craft talks, generative writing, group mentorship and private consults with Danusha, you will find renewed inspiration and sharpen your knowledge of craft. If you've wanted to develop your poems more fully, receive consistent feedback from a trusted source, and possibly hone or assemble a manuscript, this is a great opportunity.

Space is limited to 8 poets.

Apply to the Field Guide Mentorship

Take Risks in a Supportive Setting

Learn New Craft Techniques

Enjoy Submitting and Publishing Your Work

"The longer I teach, the stronger I feel about what I emphasize in my teaching. Mastery of our craft has two sides, on the one hand and intimate knowledge of the importance of things like metaphor, line breaks, rhythm, form, diction, etc… these are the tools that are available to us. And on the other side are the things that make writing matter, what we have to say, how free we feel to say it, and an acceptance of who we are and what we have to say.

If we attend to one and not the other, we won’t develop in the ways we hope to as poets. My intention as a teacher is always to address both sides. My gifts lie in finding the areas where a writer can deepen in their craft and to provide the support they need."

~Danusha

APPLY NOW

What you get with the Mentorship

Full Access to Litfield

Writing from prompts in community
Craft counsel from esteemed guest poets
Open mic
Danusha’s deep reading sessions
One year's membership
Value: $1250

Personal Consults

Reflections of strengths (what are your superpowers?)
Where can your work be strengthened/develop
Break through barriers to get closer to your deepest and truest material
Explore and create your own Writing Touchstones to guide you on your path
Understand your natural writing style through The Nine Lenses of Poetry

Intimate Group Workshops

Up to 8 people
Safe, structured, and productive
Direct feedback from Danusha
Weekly workshop and biweekly feedback

Craft Talks

From Danusha’s craft book in progress: The Broken Body, The Nine Lenses of Poetry, Poetic Beginnings, Gestures of Certainty and Uncertainty, Getting to the Marrow, Writing Scale, Irritant and Solace and more
Live and recorded

Publishing Guidance/Advice

Develop or refine your process of submitting work
Personalize your approach to publishing
Make publishing an enjoyable process
Receive support with manuscript decisions

Group Mentorship

Ask about anything, including all aspects of writing and the writing life
Address craft questions
Receive guidance on your growth as a writer

Starting April 28th 2026, Weekly group meetings on Tuesdays 2pm to 4pm Pacifc Time.

Maximum of 8 participants on each co-hort.

The meetings rotate Poem Workshops, Group Mentorships, Craft Talks, Generative Writing Sessions, and Personal Consults.

About Danusha

Danusha Laméris, a poet and essayist, was raised in Northern California and born to a Dutch father and a Barbadian mother.

A Pushcart Prize recipient, she was honored with the 2020 Lucille Clifton Legacy Award. Laméris also served as the 2018–2020 Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California.

Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, Orion, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and Prairie Schooner. Her widely shared poem “Small Kindnesses” has been translated into multiple languages, quoted in O Magazine, turned into a short film, and recently read by actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Her debut collection, The Moons of August (2014), was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award.

Laméris’s second book, Bonfire Opera (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pitt Poetry Series), was a finalist for the 2021 Paterson Poetry Award and the recipient of the 2021 Northern California Book Award in Poetry.

Her most recent collection, Blade by Blade (2024), is now available from Copper Canyon Press.

What Past Mentorship Students Say

 ”It was transformative to be in the world that Danusha created of people who are serious about doing the soul work of writing poems together. She has a gift for engaging with a poet—as she puts it, inspiring a poet "to get to the next draft." That's just what I needed. She can encourage and tell the truth at the same time—not an easy thing to do.

Danusha deepened my own writing by helping me see that the ostensible subject of a poem isn't the true poem. I learned to have faith that if I just keep going, if I don't give up, I can find the song hidden in the poem. Her mentorship gave me the courage to experiment, to try approaches to my poems I had never attempted before—to begin to trust myself.

—David Grubin

"The lessons on subject A and subject B and trying to get that deeper B really helped me advance my craft. The Nine Lenses of Poetry has helped me so much as a framework, and I appreciated the reminder that something doesn’t have to be perfect to send it out.

I also loved the feedback protocol, which is the most respectful and productive form of feedback I’ve ever had in workshops or critique groups. There are so many other things from this mentorship that I can’t list them all, but it was a life-changing experience for me as a poet."

—Therese L. Broderick, poet in Albany, NY(USA)

"Key to the program for me was Danusha’s informed and insightful way of finding the juice in my poem. There was an intimacy in this small group as we responded to each other’s poems and heard them read aloud.

Danusha helped me keep my own way of looking at things while keeping up standards for writing that would keep the reader interested. The single biggest thing I gained was feeling that I could have my own voice without being ashamed of it and stay true to my own way of looking at things."

—Virginia Lee Chen

Danusha is not only an accomplished poet but an accomplished critic, and she provided excellent feedback. Her comments were observant and on point, and she delivered them very gently.

The feedback from the group was also useful and was never harsh or unfairly critical. There was an excellent sense of community, particularly since the members wrote widely diverse poetry. More importantly, we were all there to accomplish the same thing—taking our poetry as far as it could go.

—Bob Rice

"Danusha’s feedback, both intuitive and grounded in a vast knowledge of poetry, is fierce and gentle. It was an honor to have her well-tuned ear edit my work.