Day Eight is pleased to open registration for a poetry retreat, produced in partnership with Howard University, to occur Sunday February 22nd, 1:30-5:30pm. The retreat is produced within the ongoing partnership between the Mid-Atlantic Review and Howard University and supported in part by grant from the DC Mayors Office of Community Affairs.
The 2026 retreat is directed by Teri Cross Davis and co-hosted by Howard University faculty and Mid-Atlantic Review contributors Susan Mockler and Kimberly Douglas, and Mid-Atlantic Review managing editor Robert Bettmann. The retreat workshops will be taught by Day Eight authors Rebecca Bishophall and Brandon Douglas. Space is limited and registration is free of charge. The retreat is occurring at the Howard University Library. Attendees will receive additional details after registration. Reserve your spot by registering on Eventbrite at the link here. A limited number of spaces are open for individuals who are not part of the Howard University student body.
Retreat agenda:
1:00-1:30 Registration and check-in
1:30 Welcome and invocation from Teri Cross Davis
1:35-3:15 Generative poetry writing workshop led by Rebecca Bishophall and Brandon Douglas
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-5:15 Poetry reading hosted by Teri Cross Davis featuring Susan Mockler, Kimberly Douglas, Robert Bettmann, Rebecca Bishophall and Brandon Douglas, with reading by workshop participants.
Retreat faculty:
Teri Ellen Cross Davis ( retreat director ) is the author of A More Perfect Union, 2019 winner of The Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Haint, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the 2022 recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Robert H. Winner Memorial Prize. Her work has appeared in print, online, and in many journals and anthologies including: Harvard Review, PANK, Poetry Ireland Review, and Kenyon Review. Until recently, she served as the Poetry Series Curator and Poetry Programs manager for the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Brandon Douglas ( workshop leader, featured poet ) is the 2023 winner of The DC Poet Project and author of the book Dipped in Cerulean (Day Eight, 2023.) He works as a poet educator in schools, detention centers, and community centers.
Rebecca Bishophall ( workshop leader, featured poet ) is the co-author of Breaking the Blank (Day Eight, 2022) with Dwayne Lawson-Brown. Rebecca has featured at Spit Dat open mic, Capitol Hill book fair, the Afrocentric Book Expo, and elsewhere, and serves as workshop director for Day Eight’s Women and Girls writing program.
Susan Bucci Mockler ( featured poet and retreat host ) teaches writing at Howard University and was a writer in residence at Rocky Mountain National Park in the summer of 2025. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies and her full-length poetry collection, Covenant (With) was published by Kelsay books in 2022.
Kimberly A. Collins, MFA ( featured poet and retreat host ) is a Callaloo Fellow, Pushcart Prize finalist, and Master Instructor in Howard University’s Writing and Poetry Program. She is the author of the poetry books, Bessie’s Resurrection (Indolent Books, 2018) and Slightly Off Center (1993) and her poetry appears recently in, It’s the Honey (2024) edited by Kwame Alexander, and other literary journals and anthologies.
Robert Bettmann (featured poet and retreat host ) is managing editor of the Mid-Atlantic Review. He serves as editor for the majority of books acquired and published by Day Eight. In 2024 he co-edited, with Ori Z. Soltes, a special section of poetry for the Mid-Atlantic Review, the Jewish Experience.