Poetry and Grief: A Writing Workshop with Melissa Kwasny 

Session Time: Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 | 1-4pm

Place: Open AIR | 300 Evans Ave Missoula, MT 59802

Audience: This workshop is suitable for individuals 18+ All experience levels welcome.

What to bring: All materials will be provided 

Cost: The workshop is free, but a suggested donation is appreciated!

Registration: Registration is required and will close 24 hours before the workshop begins.

Cancellation: If you are registered and cannot attend the workshop, please let us know at program@openairmt.org so we can open the spot for another participant! 

Questions? Email program@openairmt.org


About the Artist: 

Melissa Kwasny is the author of seven books of poetry, including "The Cloud Path" (Milkweed Editions, 2024), "Pictograph," and "Where Outside the Body is the Soul Today," as well as a collection of essays "Earth Recitals: Essays on Image and Vision." She is also the editor of two anthologies: "I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poets in Defense of Global Human Rights" and "Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry 1800-1950." Her first full length nonfiction book, "Putting on the Dog: The Animal Origins of What We Wear," explores the cultural, labor, and environmental histories of clothing materials provided by animals. She was Montana Poet Laureate from 2019-2021, a position she shared with M.L. Smoker. 

About the Workshop:

Grief is universal. All peoples, and most animals, experience it. It is, paradoxically, also individual; we each suffer grief uniquely. It is perhaps our strongest emotion and yet the most difficult to describe to others. In this generative workshop, we will explore the ways that poems can provide a language for our deepest losses.