English 290P - Spring, 2017

Creative Writing: Poetry

Class Information

Instructor: Peterson, Katie
Time: T 12:10-3:00
Location: 248 Voorhies
Breadth: Later American
Focus: Genre, Method

Description

Students will write and revise original work and critique the work of other participants. We will pursue the best poems we can by treating each other’s work to deep attention, reading work aloud, and talking about revision. Together, we will read a book of essays by a contemporary poet, and look closely at a selection of contemporary poems intended to focus our gaze on the particular nature of poetic knowledge and its place in culture and politics.

The course has two objectives: the making of memorable poems by whatever means we might discover, and the creation a trustworthy and challenging community of judgment, support, and intellectual investigation. The small size of the course will ensure that students will have substantial opportunities to have their work discussed, and our methods for discussion will be shaped by student interest and the needs of the class.

Grading

Grading will be based on class participation (contributions to class discussions of assigned reading, participation in workshop conversation and critique, and written commentary on others’ work) and on written work, which will include a portfolio of at least ten poems with a few revisions and a work in prose

Texts

Proxies, Brian Blanchfield