POET 36 — Poetry Workshop: Write Evocative Poetry by Listening to Your Instincts
Quarter: Fall
Day(s): Tuesdays
Course Format: Live Online (About Formats)
Duration: 10 weeks
Date(s): Sep 26—Dec 5
Time: 6:30—9:20 pm (PT)
Refund Deadline: Sep 28
Units: 3
Tuition: $745
Instructor(s): Keith S. Wilson
Limit: 21
Class Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
Fall
Date(s)
Sep 26—Dec 5
10 weeks
Refund Date
Sep 28
3 Units
Fees
$745
Instructor(s):
Keith S. Wilson
Limit
21
Recording
Yes
Closed
All of us want to write the best poems, but what do we do when our favorite lines are not someone else’s favorite lines? Worse, what if we’re not sure what our strongest lines even are? This course offers guidance for writers at any level looking to focus on the central skill set of writing contemporary poetry—strengthening and embracing the voice we have, underneath it all, that makes us unique. In this course, students will be shown how to hone their instincts when freewriting and will gain techniques for better understanding what they want from their poems. In addition to generating new poems, we will explore a diverse array of contemporary poets—including Eve Ewing, Ocean Vuong, Jericho Brown, and Tarfia Faizullah—and break down the strategies they use to voice their work. We will also cover focused revision and discuss how to find the right readers for your work. Each student will have the opportunity to receive instructor and peer feedback on a set of poems. Any writer eager to learn from others while ultimately writing in their own style will leave this course with craft knowledge and practical strategies needed to strengthen their work without losing their unique voice in the process.
This course welcomes all skill levels, and we will spend time on poetry as a personal practice (writing for oneself) as well as poetry as a publishing practice.
KEITH S. WILSON
Former Stegner Fellow in Poetry, Stanford; Creative Writing Faculty, Spalding University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Keith S. Wilson is a game designer, an Affrilachian Poet, and a Cave Canem Fellow. He is a recipient of an NEA fellowship, an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, and an Illinois Arts Council Agency Award, and he has received both a Kenyon Review Fellowship and a Stegner Fellowship. Additionally, he has received fellowships or grants from Bread Loaf, Tin House, the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center, Ucross, the Millay Colony, and James Merrill House, among others. Wilson was also a Gregory Djanikian Scholar, and his poetry has been awarded the Rumi Prize and been anthologized in Best New Poets and Best of the Net. His poetry and prose have appeared in Elle, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. His book, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love, was recognized by The New York Times as a best new book of poetry. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.