Since ancient Greek times, writers have worked to express visual mediums in written forms, a process called ekphrasis. For contemporary writers, visual art can help generate new ideas. It can also help us find deeper meaning in our existing projects. From “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to the newest issue of The Ekphrastic Review, we’ll look at the many ways visual art can inspire and help us generate new work. We’ll have a few exercises for practice, too.

Denton Loving is the author of the poetry collections Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf. His writing has appeared in numerous publications including Iron Horse Literary Review, Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Threepenny Review, and Ecotone.