




Recent Workshops
Driftless Writing Center
In February, 2022 the Driftless Writing Center hosted a Friday night open mic, including a reading by Richard, followed by Richard’s “The Words Choose You” workshop the following day. According to center director Lisa Henner, “Richard’s poetry workshop got rave reviews!”
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Workshop
In this online 2021 workshop for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Richard read from his most recent collection of poetry, Choosing a Stone (Finishing Line Press, 2020), as well as some new work. Students then explored the process, craft and joy of poetry, and its increasingly vital place in our common aesthetic. This was a two-part program; the second installment included an interactive poetry writing workshop.
Available Workshop
The Words Choose You: Poetry Demystified
This two-hour interactive workshop, led by Milwaukee-area poet and essayist Richard Hedderman, focuses on silencing the internal critic and opening the creative imagination. It is designed to demystify poetry – bringing the poet’s essential tools (diversity, language, poetic architecture, and metaphor) into practice. Participants will engage in a series of practical yet intuitive exercises, as a means of exploring ourselves and the world around us. During the program, attendees – along with Richard – will share their works-in-progress. We conclude with a discussion of his newest collection of poetry, Choosing A Stone, (Finishing Line Press, 2020).
Previous Workshops
- Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, Mineral Point, WI (2017)
- Poet-Tree Day, Westlawn Elementary, Cedarburg, WI (2016)
- BodyMindSpirit Works Mediation Center, Grafton, WI (Creative Writing Workshop)
- Irish Barroom Brawling Workshop (as a Fight Instructor)
From “Reading Yourself to Sleep”
Eyelids flutter over the blank verse
of sleep. You brush the crow’s wings
from your face. The book, perhaps a collection
of Chekhov’s short stories, spills
from your hands and tumbles into the dark
as through still water, sinking
under the weight of words.