Award winning poet Sue Ellen Thompson has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and holds a number of honors and writing credits. She also love to teach. A former resident of Vermont, Thompson now calls the Eastern Shore of Maryland her home, and is sharing her talents with the Arts Council in Centreville. In an engaging and productive workshop, “The Magic of Metaphor”, poets ages fifteen and older will focus on the brilliant image – the simile or metaphor – that is the key to creating memorable and meaningful poetry.

Students will examine some of the more challenging and unusual metaphors that contemporary poets have used to bring their poems to life and engage in discussion on how to choose between simile and metaphor, how to control and extend an image and how to avoid making comparisons that are sentimental or clichéd. Thompson will also give students a writing exercise designed to challenge each writer’s image-making powers and examine the effectiveness of the similes and metaphors in the poems that students bring to class.
This one-day workshop will be held at the Centre for the Arts in Centreville, MD from 9 am to 12 pm on Saturday, November 8. The deadline for registration is October 31. Class cost is $80 for Arts Council Members and $100 for non-members.

In addition to Thompson’s nomination for the Pulitzer, she has had her work read on National Public Radio by Garrison Keillor and has been featured in U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s nationally syndicated newspaper column among many other accomplishments. She recently edited The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry and has published four volumes of poetry and essays.

Arts Council classes are designed to renew existing interests, and to develop new skills. Registration materials are available at 206 South Commerce St. in Centreville, Tuesday – Friday from 9am to 4pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm or by calling 410-758-2520 online, www.arts4u.info, or request via email at arts4u@arts4u.info