teaching writing // writing teaching

Introduction to Poetry

Georgia State University

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This class is an introductory level creative writing course, and a hybrid writing workshop and discussion-oriented seminar. We will study the fundamental terminology and forms of poetry and explore and discuss the work of both canon and contemporary poets. You will be encouraged to experiment with these forms of writing, to step out of your comfort zone(s) and to challenge your own preconceptions of where writing can take you. You will draft, revise and discuss your own work. Through the course of our reading, writing assignments, class discussions and reelection, we will come to a deeper understanding of the published poets we read, of the work of you fellow classmates, and of your own writing.

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Poetic Techniques

Georgia State University

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How do we shape a poem? Often the first answer that springs to mind when searching for how to define poetry is about its visual arrangement (linebreaks) and the pattern of sound (rhyme and meter). But how are these decisions made? Who decides what a poetic form is? This creative writing class explores poetic form—from traditional forms such as the sonnet and sestina to contemporary experimentations with form such as found poetry and erasure. As a hybrid writing workshop and discussion-oriented seminar, you will build your critical skills by discussing the work of the published poets we read, the work of your classmates and your own writing. In writing a variety of traditional and more recently invented forms, you will become familiar with how form works to sculpt a poem’s language and the skills to shape your own forms.

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Finding Poetry in Song

Atlanta Institute of Music and Media

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This is a hybrid seminar-workshop in which you will explore the fundamentals of poetics and poetry writing. You will learn the sonic structures and rhetorical devices and figuration, as well explore the formal intersections of songwriting and poetry through traditional and contemporary writers. In critically analyzing and creatively writing poetry, you will expand your understanding of lyrical music and your own songwriting process.

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Advanced Poetry Workshop

Why do we pluralize poetics? In this workshop-seminar, we’ll accept the simple answer that there is no singular poetic approach and delve into the complex answer of poetry’s multiplicity together. We will read a variety of contemporary poetry collections, as well as critical and craft essays. Our collective attention on these texts will fuel weekly poetics discussions and thoughtful workshop of your own work.