Creative Writing—Cross Genre/Poetry

This course is a cross-genre course focusing on poetry. We will spend our first five weeks studying the five major elements of craft (image, character, voice, setting and story) through a treatment of both prose and poetry. We will then move to a close examination of narrative and lyric verse with a focus on both writing and critical reading. The last three weeks of the course will consist of a teacher-directed workshop where you will read and respond to fellow students’ work. Students will be asked to make two presentations during the semester: one on a favorite poet’s work and the other on one of the critical perspective essays from the anthology. The final project will include a preface and a portfolio of revised poems. Be prepared to read and write intensively—and to be enthusiastic about the writing life.

Sample Readings:

Contemporary American Poetry. Ed. Lindner and Gwynn. New York: Penguin/Pearson/Longman. 2005

An Introduction To Poetry. Ed. XJ. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson/Longman. 2005.

Selected reading on e-reserve including “Language Poetry” “Political Poetry” “The Beats” “Outlaw Poetry” and “Eco-poetry”