The Craft

The Craft brings you the intimacy of a workshop with the energy of a live event. Hosted by four published poets with a wealth of experience in teaching and editing – Nikki Allen, Lexi Pelle, Melissa Sussens, and Carson Wolfe.

In a landscape ripe with open mics and generative workshops, we offer something different – insight into the editing process and direct access to the craft of revision. No pre-reading, no homework, no lesson plans – we just show up and edit your poems.

Using a fishbowl style of teaching, as inspired by the renowned online poetry course, Poems That Don’t Suck by Megan Falley. We pull four names at random from the attendee list and live-edit these ‘fishes’ before audience participants, followed by a short Q&A.

The Craft is for you if:

1. You love editing poems as much as we do

2. You are curious about the editing process and want to learn

3. You are ready to receive constructive feedback and join the conversation with a tender heart

If you want to enter your name into the metaphorical fishbowl for a chance to have your poem live-edited, then please purchase a fishbowl ticket and arrive at the event with a poem you think is ready for editing, in a file ready to screen share.

If you’d rather sit back, relax, and observe, that’s totally ok too. Purchase an audience ticket and enjoy the show.

The Hosts:

Carson Wolfe is a Mancunian poet and Grand Prize Winner of The Disquiet Literary Program (2024). They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University, and their work has appeared in POETRY, The Rumpus, The Common, and Rattle. In 2023, they won New Writing North’s Debut Poetry Prize, received awards from The Aurora Poetry Prize and The Edward Thomas Fellowship, and were longlisted for The Poetry Society’s National Competition. Their second chapbook, Coin Laundry at Midnight, is forthcoming with Button Poetry in spring 2026.

Nikki Allen is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Muzzle Magazine, Gasconade Review, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Nailed, and Dodging the Rain among others. She is also the author of the chapbook Hotwire, published by River Dog Press in 2021. She has created and taught writing workshops at women shelters in both Middletown and Columbus, Ohio—she is also a teaching assistant for Megan Falley’s workshops Poems that Don’t Suck, and After the Ode, which has helped jumpstart her editor endeavor. Nikki currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with her partner and daughter.

Melissa Sussens is a queer South African veterinarian and poet. Her debut collection, Slaughterhouse (Karavan Press, 2022), was a finalist for the 2024 HSS Awards and was shortlisted for The Ingrid Jonker Prize 2024. She placed 2nd in the 2020 New Contrast National Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 prize. Melissa was also shortlisted for the 2024 Isele Poetry Prize and her work has appeared in many publications, both locally and internationally. She has performed at the Poetry In McGregor festival, The Commons and The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective. She spent years as a teaching assistant for Megan Falley’s international writing course, Poems That Don’t Suck and her favourite part of writing is editing. Melissa lives in Cape Town with her wife and their two dogs. Find her at melissasussens.com or @melissasussens.

Lexi Pelle is a poet and editor living in New Jersey. She was the winner of the 2022 Jack McCarthy Book Prize, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and a finalist for the Prufer Poetry Prize, Crosswinds Poetry Prize and the Marvin Bell Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Southern Review, Plume, West Branch, Rattle, 32 Poems, and River Styx.