Join Kelcey Ervick in this 4 week live zoom class

Kelcey Ervick, author/artist of The Keeper guides us through making graphic poetry and collage narratives!

When: For 4 weeks starting Monday July 17, 2023 at 6pm to 8pm Eastern

Where: Online via Zoom

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Cost: $249

Materials: A variety of pens, pencils, markers, inks, pastels, crayons, paints (watercolor, gouache, acrylic), Wite-out, gesso, paint brushes.

· Paper of all sorts. It might be helpful to have watercolor paper, Bristol board, or paper that’s at least 90 lbs or labeled for mixed-media so it can handle water/paint/glue without tearing or buckling too much. You are also welcome to work on canvas or a wooden block or cardboard!

· Ephemera of all sorts. Specifically photographs, magazines, books, and literary journals—things with images and words that excite you and that you don’t mind cutting up!

· Scissors.

· A ruler if you like straight lines.

· Adhesives (glue sticks, Mod Podge, gel medium, scotch tape, duct tape, washi tape!)

· A stapler or thread if you want to bind your zine.

· A typewriter if you want to make your own words and phrases!

Note: If you prefer to work digitally, you can certainly do so, but all lessons and examples will be work done by hand.

In Detail

Four live 2 hours sessions

Starting July 17, 2023.

  • Week 1 – Monday July 17, 6-8 pm Eastern / 3-5 pm Pacific 
  • Week 2 – Monday July 23, 6-8 pm Eastern / 3-5 pm Pacific 
  • Week 3 – Monday July 31, 6-8 pm Eastern / 3-5 pm Pacific 
  • Week 4 – Monday August 7, 6-8 pm Eastern / 3-5 pm Pacific 

Basic Class Outline:

Week One: Creating & Gathering Collage Materials; Make a Collage/Erasure Poem

-Our focus will be color, texture, mark-making, words-as-image, juxtaposition, and creative intuition.

Week Two: Haiku & Abstract Comics

- Our focus will be on abstraction, fragmentation, voice, visual language, and visual metaphors.

Week Three: Adaptation of a Poem into a Comic/Collage

- Our focus will be on working with the elements of comics: panels, speech bubbles, thought bubbles, captions, characters, and lettering.

Week 4: Mixed-Media Poetry Zine

- Our focus will be on rhythm, pacing, page turns, spreads, order/sequence, and overall unity.


Calls will include live instruction, time to work on exercises and feedback on work. 

Class videos, audios, chats and transcripts will be saved and archived for the duration of the course and 4 weeks afterwards.

There is no Mighty Network component for this course. All work will be completed during the live class or in homework assignments shared on the following zoom call. 




Watch a video about Kelcey and The Keeper here

Class size is limited! Sign up today!

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About the Instructor

Kelcey Ervick is the author of the graphic memoir, The Keeper (Avery Books/Penguin). Her three previous award-winning books of fiction and nonfiction are The Bitter Life of Božena Němcová, Liliane's Balcony, and For Sale By Owner. She is co-editor, with Tom Hart, of The Field Guide to Graphic Literature, forthcoming from Rose Metal Press in 2023. Her stories, essays, and comics have appeared in The Rumpus, The Believer, Washington Post, Lit Hub, Colorado Review, Passages North, Quarterly West, Booth, Notre Dame Review, and elsewhere. She has received grants from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and New Frontiers in Arts and Humanities at Indiana University. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati and is a professor of English and creative writing at Indiana University South Bend.

Kelcey Ervick

Instructor