English 43B

Other Readings and Media

Requried Text:  Course reader, with poetry and critical pieces by Anne Boyer, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Christopher Nealon, Harryette Mullen, Srikanth Reddy, Juliana Spahr, Rosmarie Waldrop, C. D. Wright, Timonthy Yu, and others.

Description

Even if it's written in solitude, poetry is a highly social form of art. A poet may speak to their reader, to their city, to their government, to their time. They may write to their friends or fellow poets, or they may write to, with, or against the poets of the past. In this workshop we will continue the conversation that is poetry. We'll ask how writers position themselves within local, social, and aesthetic dialogues, and we'll consider how contremporary writers respond to and build upon the work of their peers. We'll also develop a vocabulary to respond to each other's writing. All participants will submit a poem each week for feedback, and you'll be asked to provide written and oral feedback to your peers.

Students will be asked to attend a poetry reading and complete two short writing assginments on the poets in our course reader. At the end of the semester, each participant will submit a portfolio of their revised work.

This is an introduction to the writing of poetry, so all space in the class will be saved for sophomores and freshmen (at least initially). Interested students should enroll directly into this course, and no application or writing sample is required.