Hear from Participants
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"Maria Fernanda is a dynamic facilitator with tons of artistic knowledge that she shares generously, in a truly engaging and inspiring way. She provides very unique and powerful learning opportunities where individual growth and community connections are quickly forged."
—Assemblage participant
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"I appreciated the collaborative exercise, the use of technology to facilitate engagement, and the 1:1 meeting to review the course assignment. I appreciated the peer review and the opportunity to receive feedback on my work."
—Break a Vase participant
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"It was really well balanced from the reading, the writing and learning from someone’s work from out there."
—Years That Ask participant
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"María Fernanda was an outstanding instructor. She quickly developed a warm and welcoming atmosphere allowing us to experiment freely with a new poetic form. Her knowledge of the subject and ability to maintain the excitement for the topic was excellent."
—Break a Vase participant
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"The warm and welcoming energy allowed me to feel comfortable participating alongside more experienced poets."
— Reading Lucille Clifton Through a Desert Lens participant
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"I don't typically write poetry, but I have felt so stuck lately that I wanted to try something different—to write differently. And I loved it. I love Lucille Clifton."
— Reading Lucille Clifton Through a Desert Lens participant
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"I would have liked the class to be another week or more. It was so much fun."
—Years That Ask participant in a four-week course
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"Keep up with the great work and feel free to share anything that may be useful for my mission in educating my princesses.
—Performance attendee
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"My favorite part was learning new things, working with new materials [to make a broadside by hand] and reading the poems provided."
— New Language participant
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"Thank you so much, I’ve grown now. I can feel all the work that I have head of me."
—Years That Ask participant
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"María Fernanda is a fantastic writing instructor. Her warmth and dedication to craft and to us were genuine and deeply felt. She created a safe and comfortable place for us to experiment with completely new forms. The conference we had together was one of the best one-on-one sessions I’ve had in ages (I have been an educator for both kids and graduate students for over thirty years). Balancing critique and praise in words that one can really comprehend and use, is a difficult concept to master. She did this brilliantly and motivated me to work on my revision. […] Since publishing my book in 2012, I thought I had said everything I wanted to say […]. But now, after being in this workshop, I am fascinated by the Zuihitsu form and am ready to keep going!"
—Break a Vase participant
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"I've always been afraid of writing about certain topics. When I saw what Break a Vase was all about, it was a sign. Working with María Fernanda in this workshop has helped me to finally work through the feedback that I had received when I wrote about these topics. For me, workshops are like chains of insight that build upon each other if the poet does the work in-between sessions. [...] I am so highly appreciative of what I have learned from María Fernanda. I am set to go to California College of the Arts to get an MFA in Creative Writing. My concentration is Prose, but this workshop has made me think of the possibilities of poetry, in many forms."
—Break a Vase participant
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"Your work sounds awesome! Never stop creating!! I ‘liked’ your page and look forward to meeting you in one of these events.
—Website visitor
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"I’ve been taking notecards and I feel totally unstuck learning about different forms."
—Years That Ask participant
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Expressive, engaging, and dynamic…Absolutely magical. María Fernanda makes the words on the page breathe. Her command of language and poetic structure gave us permission to explore and reflect deeply on what we wanted to create and say.
— So You! workshop participant