Young writers who want to be good writers first need to read, a former Highline professor said. 

Retired writing and journalism professor Susan Landgraf will be leading a poetry workshop, via Zoom, along with current professor Susan Rich, on Feb. 23 at 3 p.m. at https://highline.zoom.us/j/81308212731

Landgraf taught full time as a tenured faculty member from 1988 to 2014 and led workshops for new faculty for three years after that. Her books include The Inspired Poet, What We Bury Changes the Ground, and Other Voices. She is the poet laureate of the city of Auburn. 

She has been a member of the Highline Foundation Board since she retired; she serves as secretary for the Board and serves on several of the Foundation’s committees.

Landgraf indulges in many artistic fields, including photography, and each medium overlaps with another in some way. 

“I am a photographer,” she said. “I was paid to be a reporter and photographer for the Valley newspapers. I learned with my camera to focus in. I am still learning that lesson when I write poems.”

Poetry is an important art form to many people, and it may be more important in these times, Landgraf. 

“We’re seeing that poetry matters more now than ever before in the world. Amanda Gorman, who read/performed her poem at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony, has said ‘Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for.’ Poetry is a lens, I believe, we use to look at the past, present, and future of ourselves,” Landgraf said. 

Landgraf offered some words of advice for beginning poets.

“Be open to change, rejection, and the opportunity to join a family of poets,” she said. “Read poetry. Read poetry. Read poetry. Find a group of poets to share your work. Work to let go of your ego. 

“Move past the rejections,” Landgraf added. “Or decide that you aren’t going to share your work; it’s for your eyes only. You’re still putting words – your emotions – out. It’s called self-therapy.”