English 43B

Other Readings and Media

A course reader will contain a diverse range of 21st-century poems, as well as some prose readings about poetics.

Students will also pick one full-length, single-author book of poetry on which they will give a presentation to the class.

Description

What can poems do, and how do they do it? This course will explore how we as poets engage with the world through our writing, and how we as readers find value in poems. Our goal will be to develop an expansive sense of possible poetic acts, and to refine practical strategies and techniques. Weekly topics (such as place, history, the political, social relations, and identity) will provide a frame of comparison as we consider examples from a diverse range of contemporary poets, and then learn from and give feedback upon each other’s experiments.

Participants will write a poem a week, keep a reflective reading journal, open discussion on peers’ poems, and give an end-of-semester presentation about a full-length book of poetry. The final will comprise a portfolio of revised poems, including a writer’s statement.

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 29.

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.