The Craft of Obsession

All Levels. This class will be in conjunction with Terrance Hayes’s Word Works lecture, in which the National Book Award-winning poet will look at a poem from each of the late poet Lynda Hull’s three books: Ghost Money (1986), Star Ledger (1991), and The Only World (1995). The poems demonstrate the ways a poet can develop themes and strategies from one book to the next. Hull’s poems about music and musicians, in particular, show how a poet can both accept and challenge his or her obsessions. Exercises and discussions in the class will concern poetry and music.