MFA, Drew University. Montilla, a poet, translator, educator, is a CantoMundo graduate fellow and a 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts fellow. Her work has been published in Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Magazine, Gulf Coast, and Best of American Poetry 2021, 2022. Her first collection, The Pink Box, was published by Willow Books and was long-listed for a PEN Open Book award. Her second collection, Muse Found in a Colonized Body, published by Four Way Books, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. SLC, 2026–
Previous Courses
Writing
Poetry Workshop: Obsessions, Darlings, and the Muses
Open, Seminar—Spring
WRIT 3607
Where does inspiration come from? Why do we always write about the same thing? Do the muses really exist? What do we do with the best line we have ever written that just does not fit that poem? This course will allow us to delve into our obsessions: what we write and why. Quiller-Couch and Faulkner begged us to let go of our “darlings,” yet in this course we are going to lean in. When we lean into our beloved lines, we can discover even more about ourselves and our work. What about the muses? We will be calling on them for our own inspiration and becoming our own muses to create poems that bring us closer to our unique poetic voice. Poets such as Jack Gilbert, Natalie Diaz, Patrick Rosal, Aracelis Girmay, and more will be read; and each week’s reading assignments will be used to dispel writers block and build creativity. Students will write poem drafts in the style of, or inspired by, poets, muses, and, of course, our own obsessions. A packet of poems and an essay on poetry will be assigned weekly, along with a writing prompt to be used for the creation of new work. The course will culminate in individual portfolios of 6–8 works of revised poetry. Revision will stem from in-class workshop and one-on-one conferences. This course will be all about leaning into what we cannot shake: our fixations and our passions. Come with your most open and tender selves, and let’s create our most cherished work.