I’m excited to be part of this year’s Castle Rock Writers Conference, where I’ll be leading two related but independent workshops focused on the notion of Soundscape in poetry. Soundscape is a word I’ve pulled in from the world of music, where it means “a piece of music considered in terms of its component sounds” (says Lexico)—sounds considered apart from the poem’s rhythm. In poetry, it refers the full range of effects a poem’s sounds have on its readers. This workshop springs from my conviction that poets should spend at least as much time finding the right sounds as they do finding the right words.
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
