"Katabasis" from the Ancient Greek means a descent of some kind, a trip to the underworld in search of understanding. A living person descends to the land of the dead so that they may come back with knowledge that informs and instructs how to conduct life among the living. Using that metaphor, the primary focus of this 8-week poetry workshop with Rohan Chhetri will read and survey katabatic narratives from ancient epics and contemporary poetry to generate original poems involving some kind of descent into the underworld as a way of imagining an encounter with the dead.

Katabasis: On Descent will meet on Sunday evenings from May 2nd–June 20th at 4:00 PM–6:30 PM ET. Each of the eight sessions will start with readings and discussions of small excerpts from ancient epics. Each of them will be paired with modern examples and variations on the theme by Li-Young Lee among others.

This workshop is open to all writers of color. Registration is now open, and space is limited. There is one scholarship spot available. The deadline to apply for the scholarship is Thursday, April 15th. See the class page for more information.

To see all of our spring classes, visit kundiman.org/online-classes.