This is a generative workshop for either people who write both poems and prose or would like to. Poems often function as the illustrations in a passage of prose, meaning they break up the space and give it breath, and to cut away to prose within a poem can mean action, setting, news flash. We’ll look at some wonderful poets and writers such as Caesar Aira, Adania Shibli, the poets of the wonderful “In the Same Light: 200 poems for Our Century from the Migrants and Exiles of the Tang Dynasty” from Song Cave, which I urge you to buy NOW plus Fady Joudah, and Rae Armantrout. This list might vary though the Tang poems are a guarantee. We’ll write at least four “things” in our week (or one long one), we’ll collectively produce from ideas a sense of what our literary models are up to, and we’ll look at a film, listen to some music, and do some life writing too, meaning look at things and describe, copy, allude. Bring a stuffed animal or an object of some significance so we can create a studio space where we all are panning with our eyes and can lean on these objects when we’re stuck. Writing is not all thinking. Let’s take a sensual approach to our practice, to see and smell and touch. It’s a feeling thing for sure and that’s what helps us know when to shift from poetry to prose and increasingly not be so interested in the difference.
Applications for Lit Fest Advanced Workshops are open here until March 8. To learn more about Lit Fest, tuition, fellowships, and advanced class admittance, click here.
Accepted participants will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with Eileen during the week of class.
