Generating Poems: Writing Alongside Local Poets

In this class, we’ll draw inspiration from the notion that poetry begins at home by writing alongside books and chapbooks by four local poets, and by inviting them to visit to read and talk to us. Scheduled guests for this term are: Arlene Kim, Sierra Nelson, Carolyne Wright, and Maged Zaher. These “close to home” encounters will help us begin to understand the range of perspectives, histories, and styles that combine to create the intellectual and esthetic world of Seattle, as it exists in the here and now. The instructor will give weekly prompts and will hold optional private conferences on the last weekend of the class to discuss a short portfolio of poems.

Required texts will be available at the Elliott Bay Book Company.

Kim, Arlene. What have you done to our ears to make us hear echoes? (Milkweed Editions, 2011).

Erdrich, Loren & Nelson, Sierra. I Take Back the Sponge Cake. (Rose Metal Press, 2012).

Wright, Carolyne. Mania Klepto: The Book of Eulene. (Turning Point, 2011).

Zaher, Maged. Thank You for the Window Office. (Ugly Duckling Press, 2012).