English 243B

Book List

NourbeSe Philip, M.: Zong!; Ondaatje, Michael: Collected Works of Billy the Kid; Taylor, Catherine: Apart

Description

Poet Erica Hunt, writing about the “pleasure of cultural resonance” and “Black sources of a radical aesthetic” described “an aesthetics whose goals are critical, investigative, disruptive [and] which aims to wear its thinking process on its sleeve, where method is performative and material.”  This spring I’d like for us to think about and respond to ideas about mixture and source and resurgence; I’d like for us to think about poetry as an investigative process, but one not separated from the visionary, not cut off from song or from particular obsession.  The idea is for our work as poets to interact some with material from worlds—technical, gossipy, historical, music-based, visual, sociological, etc.—beyond the familiar page in the anthology.  The idea will be, simply, for us to actively explore the sources of our various interests. 

My interest is in opening things up rather than excluding.  Projects that are creative and have vista (to paraphrase poet Walt Whitman), even if they do not seem to fit exactly the description above, are welcome. 

Weekly writing deadlines, field trips, public performance.

Only continuing UC Berkeley students are eligible to apply for this course. To be considered for admission, please electronically submit 5 of your poems, by clicking on the link below; fill out the application you'll find there and attach the writing sample as a Word document or .rtf file. The deadline for completing this application process is 4 P.M., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30.

Also be sure to read the paragraph concerning creative writing courses on page 1 of the instructions area of this Announcement of Classes for further information regarding enrollment in such courses.