POET 25 W — Poetry Workshop: Tapping Your Sources of Inspiration
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Allison Pitinii Davis
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 7
Class Recording Available: Yes
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Apr 4
Unit(s): 3
Enrollment Limit: 19
Status: Closed
Quarter: Spring
Unit(s): 3
Duration: 10 weeks
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 7
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Apr 4
Instructor(s): Allison Pitinii Davis
Enrollment Limit: 19
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
When a stranger asked the poet Donald Hall what he wrote about, Hall joked, “Love, death, and New Hampshire.” How would you answer the question? Do you have specific people, places, times, and ideas that you would like to explore? Are you interested in composing a group of poems but aren’t sure where to start? Have you written poems that you hope to link into a collection? In this course, writers will explore their poetic interests and compose a poetry series examining a topic (or topics) of their choice. To aid in the composition of these linked series, we will study techniques that establish continuity across a span of poems. We will examine how form, language, sound, image, tone, and organization operate in the work of poets including Louise Glück, Natasha Trethewey, Vijay Seshadri, and Shelley Wong. We will then apply these techniques to weekly writing assignments, which will be reviewed in online workshops. Weekly, we will share our poems during optional virtual meetings. The course will end with one-on-one consultations and a discussion about publication and creative engagement. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to utilize a diverse range of poetic styles, incorporate feedback from the instructor and an engaged community of writers, and have an organized group of poems ready for personal use or publication.
Students should plan on investing two to six hours per week in order to gain substantial benefit from the course.
ALLISON PITINII DAVIS
Former Stegner Fellow, Stanford; Instructor of Family and Community Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University
Allison Pitinii Davis is the author of Line Study of a Motel Clerk, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Ohioana Book Award, and Poppy Seeds, the receipient of the Wick Poetry Chapbook Prize. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from The Best American Poetry, The New Republic, The Oxford American, Poets.org, and elsewhere. She received a PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Tennessee and a fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Rosanna Young Oh, The Corrected Version (ISBN 978-1939728593)
(Required) Shelley Wong, As She Appears (ISBN 978-1936919895)
(Required) Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (ISBN 978-0393316544)
(Required) Shelley Wong, As She Appears (ISBN 978-1936919895)
(Required) Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (ISBN 978-0393316544)