UDP’s Seminar and Workshop program offers a variety of one-day sessions and ongoing weekly workshops on writing, poetics, and bookmaking, usually taught by our authors. All seminars are affordably priced and usually limited to 10 participants. They are held at our studio on the third floor of the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus, Brooklyn, at 232 Third Street, corner of Third Ave.
* Participants receive a free UDP book related to the topic of the seminar (or sometimes several).
* Members & subscribers receive a fifteen percent discount on all seminars. (Use the discount code on your membership card at checkout.)
Upcoming :
Bookmaking for Writers with Rebekah Smith
June 21, 2025, 1–5:30 pm
at the UDP Studio in the Old American Can Factory
This one-day workshop will introduce participants to bookmaking basics, with a focus on how to think about your writing and book project in connection to each other. We’ll cover different kinds of paper, printing, binding, tools, and methods, and you will be introduced to at least two bookbinding techniques that you can use at home. Together, we will think about how the work you’re writing can interact creatively with the form of the book you are making. Through a combination of discussion, examples, and hands-on activities, you will be introduced to practical methods for making your own small editions of books.
Limited to 10 participants. All materials included.
Rebekah Smith is a writer, translator, and editor. She edits books at Ugly Duckling Presse, and makes small edition artist books and chapbooks with her side project, Johan Johan Editions. Her writing has appeared in Poems by Sunday; No, Dear; and is forthcoming in a belladonna* chaplet. Her translations from Spanish include The Sea by Victoria Cóccaro (DoubleCross, 2024) and Ova Completa (UDP, 2021). She is a 2024 NEA Literature in Translation Fellow.
To hear about future seminars, join our mailing list.
Past seminars:
LAPSUS LIINGUII: workshop on asemics, trancelation, and the senses, with Diana Garza Islas
Saturday, December 7, 2pm-4:30pm
This workshop will explore poetic and hybrid writing through trancelation exercises using phonetical and asemic approaches.
In-person at the UDP studio.
Introduction to Letterpress
This four-hour workshop held in the UDP studio will introduce participants to letterpress printing on a Provisional Press. The workshop will cover typesetting with lead and wood type, Provisional Press maintenance and cleaning, and ink manipulation. Each participant will take home a small letterpress project of their own devising.
No previous letterpress experience necessary.
WHAT THE LETTER’S DOING WHEN THE WORD ISN’T LOOKING: An Inquiry with Lewis Freeman
Sundays, October 22 to November 12, 4pm — 6pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Paratextual Play with Holly Melgard
Wednesdays, May 11 and 18, 2022, 7pm — 9pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
On the Liminality of Surfaces with Lewis Freedman
Sundays, February 20 and 27; March 6 and 13, 2022, 4pm — 6pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
The Book as Democratic Multiple with Willa Goettling
Sundays, December 5, 12, and 19, 2021, 4pm — 6pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Worldbuilding As Poetic Attempt with Ed Steck
Sunday, October 24, 2021, 11am — 2pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Softcover Long-Stitch Binding with Willa Goettling
Sunday, June 13, 2021, 5pm — 6:30pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Simple Book Structures with Willa Goettling
Sunday, May 2, 2021, 5pm — 6:30pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Living in Long Poems with Emily Hunt
Wednesdays, January 27 to February 24, 17 to June 14, 2021, 6pm — 8:30pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
[five-week seminar and workshop]
Poems About Art: History and Making with Jennifer Nelson
Saturday, January 16, 2021, 3pm — 6pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Simple Book Structures with Willa Goettling
Thursday, October 15, 2020, 7pm — 9pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Softcover Long-stitch Binding with Willa Goettling
Thursday, October 29, 2020, 7pm — 9pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
The Book as Democratic Multiple with Willa Goettling
Sundays, November 8, 15, and 22, 2020, 4pm — 6:30pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
Living in Long Poems with Emily Hunt
Sundays, May 17 to June 14, 2020, 4:30pm — 7:00pm EST
Thursdays, June 4 to July 2, 2020, 6:30pm — 9:00pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
[five-week seminar and workshop]
Worldbuilding As Poetic Attempt with Ed Steck
Saturday, May 30, 2020, 1:00pm — 4:00pm EST
Saturday, June 27, 2020, 1:00pm — 4:00pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Sentence Workshop with Alexis Almeida
Saturday, June 13, 2020, 12pm — 3pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Giving Each Other the Time with Anna Vitale
Saturday, June 20, 2020, 12pm — 3pm EST
Online seminar held over Zoom
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Sentence Workshop with Alexis Almeida
Saturday, October 5, 2019, 12pm — 4pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day seminar and workshop]
The New Eco-Poetics with Leonard Schwartz
Saturday, September 21, 2019, 12pm — 4pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Sentence Workshop with Alexis Almeida
Saturday, June 15, 2019, 12pm — 4pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day seminar and workshop]
American AI Hustle: Robots Have Feelings, Too. with Chia-Lun Chang and Asiya Wadud
Saturday, December 15, 2018, 12pm — 3pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factor, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Translation Lab with Simone Kearney and Paul Legault
Monday, July 16 — August 13, 2018, 6:30 pm — 9:30 pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[five-week seminar and workshop]
YALDA Workshop with Farnoosh Fathi
Saturday, July 14, 2018, 12pm to 3pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day writing workshop for youth aged 14 to 19]
Viriditas, Thinking Like a Plant, or This World I Live In with Farnoosh Fathi
Saturday, June 23, 2018, 12pm to 4pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Eco-Poetics with Leonard Schwartz
Saturday, May 12, 2018 12pm — 4pm
Location: UDP Studio, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-day seminar and workshop]
Pamphlet Stitch Bookbinding Workshop with Woody Leslie
Thursday, February 13, 2014, 7pm — 9pm
Location: Third Factory, the Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn.
[one-evening workshop]