Dennis Etzel Jr. is a poet and writer who lives with their spouse Carrie and their boys in Topeka, Kansas, where he teaches English at Washburn University. He has an MFA from The University of Kansas, and an MA and Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from Kansas State University. He has two chapbooks, The Sum of Two Mothers (ELJ Publications 2013) and My Graphic Novel (Kattywompus Press 2015). My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015) was selected by The Kansas City Star as a Best Poetry Book of 2015, and its sequel My Grunge of 1991 was recently published (BlazeVOX 2017). Fast-Food Sonnets (Coal City Review Press 2016) is a 2017 Kansas Notables Book selected by the State of Kansas Library. This Removed Utopia (Spartan Press 2017) was published as part of the Kaw Valley Poetry Series.

Their work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, Fact-Simile, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3:AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. Etzel is the recipient of a 2017 Troy Scroggins Award and the 2017 Topeka ARTSConnect Arty Award in Literary Arts. They co-edited Ichabods Speak Out: Poems in the Age of Me, Too and Kansas Speaks Out: Poems in the Age of Me, Too with Dr. Jericho Hockett. He is a TALK Scholar and part of the Speakers Bureau for Humanities Kansas and leads poetry workshops in various Kansas spaces.

From public libraries to public schools

From youth group homes to retirement communities

From college classrooms to tallgrass prairie retreats I love the power of what poetry workshops accomplish

A Poetry Workshop to Fit Your Needs: In an open, supportive, judgement-free environment, I specialize in facilitating small group activities around generating words to shape into poems.

Please reach out to query with what you are looking for.

Roughly two-and-a-half hours: $300 for travel within NE Kansas. $500 for travel elsewhere in Kansas.

Includes an open-mic section.

Interactive discussions, workshops, and readings.

Provides a poetry workshop, then facilitates an open-mic poetry reading for participants.