In this workshop, we will focus on clusters of poems. We will examine the ways, consciously or not, our poems return to a place, person, image, word, line/sentence construction, or a form of expression. What can these repetitions teach us about our poems? How can we mine these repetitions, these obsessions, for new work? How might we subvert or delve more deeply into our own habits? Rather than looking at numerous single poems each meeting, we will look at a fewer number of poem clusters and spend a longer period of time on each. Participants will send 4-5 poems in advance of the workshop. There will be prompts and some handouts to inspire you to write new work during the week.
LYNN EMANUEL is the author of five books of poetry: Hotel Fiesta, The Dig, Then, Suddenly—, Noose and Hook, and most recently, The Nerve of It: New and Selected Poems. Her work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, Best American Poetry and is anthologized in The Oxford Book of American Poetry. She has served as a poetry editor for the Pushcart Prize Anthology, on the Literature Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a judge for the National Book Awards. Emmanuel has received numerous awards including the Eric Matthieu King Award from The Academy of American Poets, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a fellowship from the Ranieri Foundation and the National Poetry Series. She has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Bennington Writers’ Conference, The Warren Wilson Program in Creative Writing, and has been the Elliston Distinguished Poet-in-Residence in the PhD program at University of Cincinnati. She is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh where she founded and directs the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers’ Series.
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