English 143B

Book List

Boyer, Anne: Garments Against Women; Foster, Tanya M.: A Swarm of Bees in High Court; Giles, Samantha: deadfalls and snares; Rankine, Loffreda, and King, eds.: The Racial Imaginary; Sawako, Nakayasu: Mouth: Eats Color

Other Readings and Media

Physical or digital copies of several other books will be provided.

Description

At a pivotal moment in the development of her practice, the experimental composer Maryanne Amacher is said to have conducted a notebook-based self-analysis that revolutionized her relationship to composition. In this course, parallel to the writing, critiquing, and reading of poetry, we will borrow and adapt this idea, first determining collectively what elements of poetics to address, and then working individually to probe and/or purge our assumptions about them. In addition to the individualized readings that emerge from these studies, we will discuss recent works by Tonya Foster, Samantha Giles, Anne Boyer, Sawako Nakayasu (with Chika Sagawa), Simone White, Diana Hamilton, Rob Halpern, and others, as well as selections from the recently released book The Racial Imaginary. The semester will culminate in some form of public presentation or presentations — through live readings or talks, print or digital publication, or other media — of our ongoing investigations. Students interested in translation and who work across language, genre, and media are encouraged to apply.

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.