Course Overview

Students’ poems are discussed, revised, and improved. Poetic topics will be discussed in effort to give students the tools to make more educated and artistic choices. Students will be given assignments designed to stretch their writing, to practice writing in ways they have not yet tried. We will read and discuss entire books of poetry as well as individual poems in order to think about how to collect one’s own poetry into a book or chapbook. Students will leave with a polished 10 page manuscript of poems.

What will you learn in this course?

• Be able to draft a new poem based on a prompt or reading exercise.
• Be able to write multiple drafts of a poem, making artistic decisions to improve the poem.
• Be able to critique other student’s work and discuss the work of published writers.
• Complete a manuscript of 10 pages of publishable quality paper.
• How to find a marketplace and submit your work.

Suggested Readings or Links to other content

Recommended but not required:

• Scanlon, Elizabeth. “Lonesome Gnosis”. Horsethief Books. Iowa City, 2016
• Boening, Justin. “Not on the Last Day, On the Very Last”. Milkweed Books. 2016
• McClain, Nathan. “Scale”. 4 Way Books. New York, New York, 2017

Supplies/Equipment

• Notebook
• Something to write with