led by Brenda Hillman & Robert Hass
“O sages standing in God’s holy fire/As in the gold mosaic of a wall,/Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,/And be the singing masters of my soul.” William Butler Yeats is one of the master poets of the 20th century; we will be reading our way through the arc of a career that began in late 19th century Romantic and Symbolist methods, continued through the time of Ireland’s political struggle, forged a language that confronted the violence of the 20th century and transformed his early Romantic myths into a hard and enduring vision of the primacy of art. To get there, he made some of the most memorable poetic music of his time. We will track his work from his earliest interests in Celtic mythology through the later work of visionary force. The style of the course will be slow reading through a few poems per session, with background provided each week.
Register Here
Register for the 2026 Season Pass
Register for all four one-night courses only: Spring 2026 Collection
Dates & Times: Online Tuesdays: September 1 to September 29. Main sessions run from 4 pm to 6 pm (Pacific) with optional discussion groups to follow.
- Tuesday, September 1, 2026
- Tuesday, September 8, 2026
- Tuesday, September 15, 2026
- Tuesday, September 22, 2026
- Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Note: For those who are interested, intimate Zoom discussion groups (Virtual Houses) will meet after each session and on subsequent Saturdays at 10 AM.
Course Texts
For this course, our text will be:
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats- Revised Second Edition– Edited by Richard J. Finneran
Participants who don’t own the text are asked to purchase at least the required text, if possible, before September 1. It is best to use the same text even if you already own a different copy. That way we can reference specific pagination and move quickly through this large book.
Handouts for each session will be posted online. Additional reading materials, including essays and short fiction will be added.
Leadership
Brenda Hillman’s most recent book is Extra Hidden Life among the Days (2018). Hillman has co-edited and co-translated numerous volumes, including Ana Cristina Cesar’s At Your Feet (Parlor Press, 2018), co-translated from Portuguese with her mother Helen Hillman. Her awards for poetry include the 2020 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award for Innovation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She teaches at Saint Mary’s College of California, directs Poetry Week at Community of Writers and currently serves as a Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets.
Robert Hass has published many books of poetry including Field Guide, Praise, Human Wishes, Sun Under Wood, and The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems. His collection of poems entitled Time and Materials won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He has also written books of essays including Twentieth Century Pleasures, Now & Then, and A Little Book on Form: An Exploration Into the Formal Imagination of Poetry. His book of essays, What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World, is the recipient of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Hass translated many of the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz, and he has edited Selected Poems: 1954-1986 by Tomas Transtromer; The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa; Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life; the 2001 edition of Best American Poetry; and Modernist Women Poets: An Anthology (with Paul Ebenkamp). He wrote the introduction to an edition of selected Walt Whitman poems titled Song of Myself: And Other Poems. He also wrote The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass. His most recent book is Summer Snow: New Poems. He directed the Poetry Program at the Community of Writers for over 20 years.
What to Expect:
- Five, two-hour weekly sessions online with assigned reading. The group can be large, depending on the course.
- In the first 60 or 70 minutes, Hillman and Hass will explore and supply background on the previously assigned readings.
- In the second part, Hillman and Hass will address questions and widen the discussion. Participant questions and comments will be submitted in the chat.
- Optional small (8-10 person) discussion groups will be available to those with the energy and interest after the formal session is over. Discussion guides will be provided.
- These sessions will be recorded, and will be available for later viewing by registered participants for 30 days following the final session
Tuition:
- Early Bird Tuition is $270. The Early Bird Deadline is Thursday, August 20, 2026.
- Tuition is $300.
- Limited financial aid available. Please contact us if needed.
- Season Pass and other packages available here. (link coming soon)
Register Here
Register for the 2026 Season Pass
Register for all four one-night courses only: Spring 2026 Collection
The Writers Annex
Online, and year-round, The Writers’ Annex is composed of short courses, seminars, workshops, and more. Our vision is to bring the creative insight and experience of our staff poets and prose writers to our community in all seasons, not just in the summertime, and not just here in our Valley. Our online offerings will address such topics as eco-poetics, translation, and generative sessions. Some will be one or two days, some will be weekend intensives, and some will meet weekly for a month or two. In addition, we hope these offerings will help offset the tremendous expenses we face as an organization for our traditional in-person events in Olympic Valley.