Return Key
How It Works
The Return Key experience is interactive, nostalgic, and inclusive. Your guests are encouraged to chat about any topic, whether related to the event or not. If they want to co-compose a Return Key poem, but feel blocked, Martha asks questions and employs brief prompts that help coax out the stories. Then, a custom poem is composed for them on a vintage Olympia typewriter.
When your guests leave, they will then be taking home a thoughtful keepsake to remind them of the event. Many people relate to us that they’ve framed their poems and hung them with other treasured mementos.
Who Is Your Return Key Poet?
Martha Greenwald, a writer, educator, and editor based in Louisville, Kentucky, artfully combined her love for poetry, conversation, and all things vintage and created Return Key.
A former English and Creative Writing professor, she has an uncanny ability to help most people figure out what it is they want to express. Her intuitive sixth sense works wonders when it comes to composing spontaneous typewriter poetry.
She is the editor of Who We Lost: A Portable COVID Memorial, and the founder of The WhoWeLost Project. Her poetry collection, Other Prohibited Items, won the Mississippi Review Poetry Prize. Her work has been featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Salon.com, on NPR’s Here and Now, and in numerous literary journals including Poetry, Slate, and Best New Poets. For more information about Martha, and links to her projects and publications, visit her personal website.