Grackle image by Alexa Elipa.
How to transform a set of poems into a book? Into an experience, a room, a landscape you can walk around inside?
This class is designed to help writers view their manuscripts clearly and refine their vision for the book they want to create. Through a series of exercises and frameworks, writers will develop and clarify their ideas using tools I developed to refine my own manuscripts. Along with group discussions of each writer’s manuscript, we’ll examine other books for insights on structure, form, titles, tones, and themes to inspire creative possibilities. The syllabus includes authors like Chelsy Minnis, Selima Hill, James Schuyler, Audre Lorde, Diane di Prima, and Anne Carson. Each of the eight sessions will explore a specific topic to hone the manuscript, with the final two focusing on publication and publicity. Rather than line editing or individual poem feedback, the emphasis is on the book’s form. This class is for poets with manuscripts—full-length or chapbook—who seek to revise the work’s structure, shape, focus, or overall feeling.
Optional reading list:
BAD BAD by Chelsey Minnis // or ZIRCONIA………. BAD BAD by Chelsey Minnis
DINNERS AND NIGHTMARES by Diane di Prima
RED ROSES by Selima Hill
HYMN TO LIFE by James Schuyler // or COLLECTED POEMS OF SCHUYLER by James Schuyler
THE BLACK UNICORN by Audre Lorde
GLASS, IRONY, AND GOD by Anne Carson // or GLASS AND GOD, the UK version
We’ll also discuss
SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE by William Blake
https://gutenberg.org/files/1934/1934-h/1934-h.htm
HESPERIDES by Robert Herrick
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22421/22421-h/22421-h.htm
This class will have eight students in it, max, and there is room for two people who would like to audit it for $200. Email me if you are interested in the audit.
Emily Bludworth de Barrios is a poet whose latest book, Shopping or The End of Time (University of Wisconsin 2022), received the Felix Pollak Prize. Her next book, Rich Wife, is the recipient of the Four Lakes Prize and will be published Spring 2025 (University of Wisconsin). Her poems have recently appeared in publications such as Harvard Review, Copper Nickel, The Poetry Review, and Oxford Poetry. She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and also holds degrees from Goldsmiths College and The College of William & Mary. She was raised in Houston, Cairo, and Caracas, and now lives in both Houston, Texas and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Her website is www.emilybludworthdebarrios.com.