First Draft: A Creative Writing Social with Von Wise

This workshop will focus on sound and the act of reading, writing, and thinking with our ears. Sound is a fundamental and often less-considered element in creative writing. Here, we’ll explore the role sound plays and how it can be used to create powerful poetry.

Von Wise received his MFA from Florida International University and is the author of Grow a Cowboy, winner of the 2025 Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards. His poetry and prose have been published and anthologized by Lucky Jefferson, Inverted Syntax, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Philadelphia Stories, Red Ogre Review, and elsewhere. He teaches English and Creative Writing in Philadelphia, where he lives. His work has been nominated for Best of the Net and selected as a finalist in the Bateau Press chapbook contest and the Letter Review poetry contest. He was a runner-up in the Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Contest, and his chapbook “Celebrity Poems” was shortlisted for the Letter Review Prize for unpublished manuscripts.