AWP Panel: Dark-Lit Awakening: Rethinking the Lyric Moment
Sat, Mar 29
|Los Angeles
A study of timeless awe in poetry and how to trigger it through rendering life's "dark" moments.


Time & Location
Mar 29, 2025, 10:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Los Angeles, 1201 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA
About the event
In Room 502B, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center, with fellow presenters Francesca Bell, Jessica Cuello, Farnaz Fatemi, and Luke Johnson, we will present a study of the dark lyric moment:
The lyric moment might be described as a moment of ecstatic awe when time stops. Rilke’s “You must change your life” comes to mind. But what about those time-stopping moments that feel hopeless or horrible? Regardless of labels like “triggering,” “brutal,” “confessional,” or “trauma-laden”—any emotion can conjure the lyric moment and possess its own beauty. We will discuss aspects of craft and attitude that—despite difficult content—facilitate the ignition of the lyric moment.