Department of English

This upper-level poetry workshop will focus on developing your original work. In class, we will write, read, and write some more, focusing on craft through close reading of contemporary poetry along with essays on poetics. As a craft practice, you will keep a common book on what you read. In workshop, we will engage your poems in process: what is found there, what calls for further exploration, etc. You can expect to submit multiple revisions of each poem.

By semester’s end, you will have 10-12 pages of new and original poems, several from prompts or in-class writing. Revision is where writing happens, and you will be asked to discuss your process in a preface to a final portfolio of your work. You will also offer substantive written critique of peer work and be expected to participate actively in workshops and discussions.

Possible course texts: selected essays on poetics; a variety of individual poetry collections (possibilities include: Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude; Limón’s Bright Dead Things; Martens’ The Spoons in the Grass Are There to Dig a Moat; Sharif’s Look; Smith’s Life On Mars; Valentine’s Cradle of the Real Life; and Vuong’s Night Sky With Exit Wounds).