Reading & Writing Poetry: Games & Experiments
Course Description
Summary
As poets, we’re often conducting little experiments on the page: What happens if I break the line here? Can I make this a sestina? How many rhymes is too many rhymes? In this advanced poetry workshop, we will dig into the experimental impulse and explore rigorous play as a method for expanding our artistic capabilities. We will use games, missions, kinetic activities, and hybrid approaches to turn our class into a poetry lab, asking, “What did we learn from this experiment?” (rather than “How can this poem be less bad?”).
After an introduction to two major avant-garde poetry movements (Oulipo and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poets), readings for this course will focus on poets who employ formal experimentation to engage questions of power and oppression, such as Terrance Hayes's use of the American sonnet to critique anti-Blackness under an authoritarian presidency, Bhanu Kapil's blended poem-interviews with fellow South Asian women, and T.C. Tolbert's visual poems addressing gender transition. We will discuss the ways race, gender, and sexuality affect interpretations of the risks poets take in their work, asking: What do we actually mean when we call a poem “experimental?” What are the boundaries of what is considered to be poetry, and what possibilities for writing might we discover by pushing against those boundaries?
All this said, the goal of this course is NOT to force anyone to write in any particular style ("experimental" or otherwise) but rather to see what happens when you bring a spirit of experimentation to your writing practice. To that end, you will be asked to read closely, write regularly (both in class and on your own), take risks, make mistakes, work collaboratively, think critically about your own creative process, strive to understand each other’s visions, and support each other’s growth with thoughtful, constructive, imaginative feedback. Students will have several opportunities to workshop poems and will work toward a final portfolio.
Learning Outcomes
- Explore what it means for a writer to take up a spirit of experimentation in their craft.
- Become familiar with a range of experimental approaches to writing poetry, becoming sharper readers of form, technique, and effect.
- Use some of these approaches in your own poems, exploring the relationship between process and product; learn from “failed” experiments and unsatisfying drafts.
- Practice developing and articulating your own creative vision; practice respecting and supporting the creative visions of others.
Prerequisites
To apply, submit a writing sample consisting of a maximum of 5 pages of poetry. Please note that this sample does not need to be particularly experimental or avant-garde in its aesthetics. Admission will be based on the overall strength of the writing sample (regardless of style, genre, etc.) and stated interest in taking the course. Submissions must be uploaded via this form, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1X1hqGY2kQQF-YNu8A0oBuvr8iqiOmE7cTlKma7…, by Friday, November 13. Students will be notified of acceptance into the class by Tuesday, November 17.
Corequisites
All students registered for 4000 level Literature and/or Creative Writing courses are required to attend Literature Evenings and the Poetry at Bennington series, which happen over the term on Wednesday evenings at 7pm.
Cross List
- Creative Writing (BFA)