Breaking the Bowl 2026
October 4 – October 25
An organic forms class and workshop led by David Koehn with Rusty Morrison
Guest speakers for 2026 to be announced
“Art is not escape, but a way of finding order in chaos, a way of confronting life.”
Robert Hayden
Are you interested in a course that will give you tools to enact for yourself new ways to enliven your writing? In tools that will continue to evolve with you, as you continue to follow your own trajectory?
In this course you’ll discover compelling strategies for inspired revision, augmented by ideas for how to break formal traditions in new ways that reflect and extend your creative repertoire.
Each week, we will feature a short talk by a guest poet, followed by a Q&A; each poet will share with candor the creative directions, the risks, the challenges, they each face in their own work.
2026 Breaking the Bowl featured guests:
week one, October 4, 2026
Ian Lockaby
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week two, October 11, 2026, guest speaker tba
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week three, October 18, 2026
Aracelis Girmay
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week four, October 25, 2026, guest speaker tba
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Writers taking this online course will benefit from having a poem of theirs (of their choice) discussed (workshopped) each week by David Koehn and Rusty Morrison.
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Space is limited. Last day to apply: Saturday, October 3, 2026
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The meeting times are every Sunday from 10 am to 1 or 2 pm (depending on your workshop section)
from October 4 through October 25, 2026
Everyone is together for the first hour from 10 am to 11:30 am, Pacific. David will discuss the lesson and assignment, and a guest poet will speak and answer questions.
Section one workshop
from11:30 am to12:30 pm Pacific Time
(1/2 hour for lunch)
Section two workshop
from1 pm to 2 pm Pacific Time
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Please hold your time open, from 10 am to 2 pm, Pacific.
(on some Sundays, we may go beyond 2 pm PST. this may be because guest stays longer than the commitment, which is a delight.)
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Everyone will join together at 10 am, to participate together in
–the Breaking the Bowl discussion hosted by David,
–& in being present for the featured guest,
–& in asking the guest questions.
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Then group one will stay together & group two will leave and return at about noon, this will depend upon how long the guest wants to stay with us.
We do not tell a guest to stop.
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We won’t assign groups until all are signed up, this allows us to create balance…
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Writers taking this online course will benefit from having a poem of theirs discussed each week by David Koehn and Rusty Morrison.
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Everyone who has submitted to an Omnidawn Contest in 2026 is eligible for 20 percent off the class fees.
Tuition: Sliding Scale: $500.00 to $650.00
(90% of which is tax-deductible,
donated to Omnidawn Publishing, a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization).
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How to Apply:
Please send us a 5-page sample of finished poems, through Submittable at this link:
https://omnidawn.submittable.com/submit
These poems will give us an evaluative appreciation of your work & a sense of your approach to writing. These are not poems that you would then need to bring to the weekly workshop (unless that is what you’d want to do; it’s always up to you to decide what poem to bring to workshop).
If you have difficulties with any of the above, &/or if you have other questions, then use this email template–Click on this e-address to access the best template for asking me any questions: rusty@omnidawn.com
If you have difficulties with any of the above, &/or if you have other questions, ask me at (template at the link): rusty@omnidawn.com
thank you!
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Space is limited; enrollment decisions will be made on a “first come, first served” basis. Last day to apply: Saturday October 3, 2026 unless the class fills before this deadline.
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Some partial scholarships available:
write to Rusty Morrison using this email template here: rusty@omnidawn.com for partial scholarship information.
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Two good things:
1. All sessions are recorded, so all who are participants can listen to the sessions again and again. So, this means that if you need to miss a week, then you still will be able to hear this recording of the featured guest and the workshop.
2. If something happens to you during the course (for instance, an unexpected serious illness) and you’re unable to continue participating in the course, then you can take the course again next year for no charge.
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David Koehn is the author of three books of poetry: Twine (Bauhan, 2013), winner of the May Sarton Prize in Poetry, Scatterplot (Omnidawn, 2020), and Sur (Omidawn, 2024), finalist in the Hoffer Awards. With Adam Soldofsky, he also co-edited Compendium (Omidawn, 2017), revisiting Donald Justice’s approach to prosody. Koehn also has a variety of work in chapbook form: Coil (UAF Permafrost, 1999) winner of the Midnight Sun Chapbook Contest, and Tunic (speCt!, 2013), a letterpress chapbook of translations of Catullus. David also has a series of collaborations with Rebecca Resinski including intervals of (Blue Bag Press, 2024), As a Signal Magnification of the General Miracle (cuckoo grey, 2020), and STREET|CORNER (cuckoo grey, 2026). His work has been published in journals including Apartment, Alaska Quarterly Review, Carolina Quarterly, Denver Quarterly, Diagram, Gargoyle, Gulfstream, Kenyon Review, Lana Turner, McSweeney’s, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, Rhino, Smartish Pace, The Greensboro Review, The Rumpus, TAB, Volt, Zyzzyva, and elsewhere. He holds a BA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from the University of Florida, and he teaches comp and creative writing at San José State University. For more info see: davidkoehn.com
Rusty Morrison’s books include her upcoming book Notes from the Understory, Notes from the Understory, to be published by Black Ocean, Risk, published by Black Ocean, After Urgency (which won Tupelo’s Dorset Prize), the true keeps calm biding its story (which won Ahsahta’s Sawtooth Prize, James Laughlin Award, N.California Book Award, & DiCastagnola Award). Beyond the Chainlink, published by Ahsahta, was a finalist for the NCIB Award & NCB Award. She’s a recipient of a fellowship from Civitella Ranieri, from UC Berkeley ARC’s Poetry & the Senses Program, and elsewhere. She teaches, gives writing consultations. She is the co-publisher of Omnidawn (omnidawn.com). Her website is rustymorrison.com.