English 143B

Description

In this class we will read as writers and write as readers, explore some of the larger mysteries and technical fine points of poetry, and how one is often to be found in the other. Course readings covering a range of 20^th and 21^st-century poetry will be provided, along with interviews and essays that address poetics and technique. Students will give brief informal presentations on writers up for discussion, and will have the opportunity to introduce to the class poems or collections not represented on the reading list. Our workshop will include experiments in established forms, free verse, avant-garde procedures, and their hybrids, and a variety of writing prompts and exercises will be available. Students will respond carefully to one another’s work and we’ll talk about strategies for revision, how to liberate the energy and immediacy of a poem. In the course of our conversations we will develop together a reading list and set of questions to carry forward into our creative lives.

TO APPLY, ATTACH YOUR WRITING SAMPLE BELOW.  PLEASE SEND FIVE PAGES OF FIVE OR MORE POEMS.