CRW 3311.001 Fall 2023 Watkins

This course offers the opportunity to write poems, read poems, and to discuss contemporary poetics as well as our indebtedness to the poets of the past. The class will run as a combination of writing workshop and literary study. Each week, students will write, and a small group will have one poem workshopped by the class in a round-table discussion. In addition, each week we will read contemporary collections/selections by poets such as Danez Smith, Patricia Lockwood, Natasha Trethewey, Patricia Smith, torrin greathouse, and Natalie Diaz (among others). We will read (and sometimes be challenged to write) forms received from various poetic traditions ranging from the haibun to the ghazal as well those created/modified by contemporary poets from the burning haibun to the golden shovel. The course will culminate in a writing portfolio of students’ work with the hope of producing and editing poems fit for publication.