English 100P – Advanced Poetry Workshop

Summer Session I 2012
(Perhaps to be repeated in the summer of 2013)

Andy Jones, Instructor
Class Location: 308 Voorhies
Hours: MTW 12:10-1:50

Office Location: 353 Voorhies
Office Phone: 752-3408
E-Mail: aojones@ucdavis.edu
Twitter Name: andyatucdavis (teaching account); andyojones (personal account); English 100P hash tag #100p
Automated Class Mailing List Address: 100p-summer2012@smartsite.ucdavis.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays from 9-10, Wednesday from 2-3, and by appointment (I often hold bonus office hours Sunday evenings from 9-11 at Crepeville, 3rd and C Streets)

Texts:
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, Edited by J.D. McClatchy
Some provided and online readings, such as from the magazine Poetry
Other poems and readings that will be announced incidentally in class

Course Description
Participants in our intensive writing workshop will focus on close reading of classmates’ and established poets’ poems; engaging in constructive attention to the poems’ styles, strategies, and success; and supporting each other’s discoveries and accomplishments as poets. In addition to bringing to class two poems a week to be workshopped (on Mondays and Wednesdays), once a week (Tuesdays) we will each share favorite discovered contemporary poems to be similarly prodded and analyzed, to see how (and to what extent) the work of experts intrigues and inspires us. Class topics will include publication strategies, poetry and mixed media, and poetry and performance. In addition to the poem drafts brought to class, at the end of the quarter students will submit a portfolio of their six best poems (with original and revised versions), and a three-page essay analyzing a short collection by a contemporary poet, with a focus on lessons that can be applied to one’s own verse.

Course Objectives

• To encourage you to write many, many poems – perhaps one a weekday during our six-week quarter – and to share with class the best two of these poems each week during a constructive workshop;
• To encourage you to discover how you can most helpfully offer and receive critiques of poems;
• To encourage you to review and enjoy a variety of lyric poems representing the best work of contemporary poets, with some old favorites included for context;
• To encourage you to learn to recognize and analyze the elements of poetry in your own work, and in the work of other poets; these elements include imagery, figurative language (such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole, paradox, irony), tone, and rhythm and meter;
• To encourage you to read professional poets’ work for an hour or more per weekday during the quarter;
• To meet with the instructor once or more for a 20+ minute conference about your poetry, during which time other topics of discussion will include additional reading assignments, performance and publishing opportunities, and long-range academic and creative goals;
• To give you an opportunity to improve your prose writing skills by completing an analytic essay (as well as other smaller, exploratory creative writing assignments);
• To give you an opportunity to improve your oral communication skills through discussions of new and established poetic texts;
• To give you an opportunity to think critically and creatively, and thus to encourage you to become a more confident writer and reader of literary texts.

Format of the Class
As ours is a workshop class, we will focus primarily (but not exclusively) on sharing and commenting upon each other’s works, many of which will begin as responses to specific assignments. The workshop approach may frustrate students who submit either clearly incomplete or absolutely adored poems for critique. While we will discuss the emotional elements and language of effective poems, you may need to separate your emotional investment from the poem during the actual critique. Consider ways that your critiques and responses to critique will be professional and helpful.

Note how Erika Meitner at University of Virginia describes a traditional workshop:

TRADITIONAL WORKSHOP: Here we will start by noting what is working in a poem and why, offer up readings/interpretations of the poem, ask questions to the workshop (and not the poet) about the poem, and offer suggestions for what might not be working in a poem (including line-level edits). We will abide by the “gag rule,” which means the poet will not be allowed to speak until the very end of our discussion, and will only be allowed to ask questions of the workshop about things they didn’t address that are of concern to the poet.

Another approach includes what Meitner calls “Snapshot Responses”:

SNAPSHOT RESPONSES: These workshops will function as a sort of speed round: each member of the class (including the poet) will be required to say something about the poem in turn. The statement can be a criticism, a compliment, a “this made me think of,” etc., but it must be a statement. Questions (by both class and poet) will be entertained at the end.

We will use these and other approaches to helping each other read and write great poems.

Grading:

50% Two poems submitted weekly, and participation in the workshop
30% A portfolio of six revised poems to be submitted at the end of the quarter
20% A three-page or longer essay analyzing a collection by a contemporary poet

In order to earn highest marks, students should share evidence of working to meet all the course objectives listed above, including writing a poem a weekday, and reading the work of discovered contemporary for an hour or more a weekday. Additional communication, participation and discussion opportunities will be provided via social media platforms and tools such as SmartSite, a WordPress website, and Twitter.

Assignments and Grading, Explained
50% Two poems submitted weekly, and participation in the workshop
In order to earn an A in this assignment category, you should plan to attend every class; in class you should exemplify initiative, enthusiasm, engagement, and evidence of having thought meaningfully about both your created poems and about assigned readings; you should seek out and read the best in contemporary poetry (an hour or more per weekday); and you should participate in our class discussions on Twitter (with hash tag #100p).

30% A portfolio of six revised poems to be submitted at the end of the quarter
In order to earn an A on end-of-quarter portfolio of six revised poems, submit work that is both of the highest quality, and that reflects appropriately significant and thoughtful revision, usually taking into account comments by your classmates and the instructor.

20% A three-page or longer essay analyzing a collection by a contemporary poet
In order to earn an A on this reflective and analytical essay on a collection by a living and widely-published poet discovered this quarter, the essay must be assertive, interesting, appropriately complex and critical of a collection of poetry that is worth your time and your reader’s. “A” essays are also clearly and logically organized, well-supported with specific (quoted) evidence, stylistically adept, and thoroughly revised.

Twitter
On occasion we will use Twitter as a forum to discuss class content with your peers, including favorite and problematic lines of poetry, assigned poets and poems, poetic discoveries, approaches to workshopping poems, etc. Earn credit towards your participation / workshopping grade by responding to each other’s questions, reflecting on earlier class discussions, and so forth. Dr. Andy’s teaching Twitter account is “andyatucdavis”; the hash tag for our class is “#100p”. Those not wishing to use existing personal Twitter accounts for class work are encouraged to establish a second account for that purpose. Note: Students should not think that Twitter participation can be substituted for attending our workshop in person – Twitter participation can only augment, and not stand in for, the work of our class.

Additional Class Requirements
Students are expected to attend every class, to participate actively in class discussions, to finish reading assignments before class on the day they are due, and to turn in assignments on their due dates.

The Course Web Page
Class documents and announcements will be found on the course SmartSite. You may also find some documents and course information at AndysClasses.com.

Syllabus
In addition to the poems that you write for our class workshop, plan to read The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry and other researched and discovered highest-quality poems for an hour a weekday during the our six-week summer session. Some of these reading assignments will be guided by the plans and student-centered discoveries presented in class.