This workshop is intended for writers who are interested in sensual detail (relating to or drawing from the five senses) with the understanding that poetry cannot exist without spirit, soul, shadow, duende, intuition. During first half of the class we practice traditional forms such as the sonnet, ghazal, pantoum and during the second half of the class we will move toward modernized and invented forms: the contemporary zuihitsu, erasure, and hybrid forms combining poetry and visual art, all the while moving toward your own individualized form(s). During our discussions we will explore poetic devices, formal strategies, structure, rhythm, and sound. Students are asked to write and read consistently, experiment, and be passionate about creation.
TINA CHANG was raised in New York City. She is the first female to be named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn and is the author of the collections of poetry Of Gods & Strangers (2011) and Half-Lit Houses (2004). She is also the co-editor of the W.W. Norton anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (2008). She is the recipient of awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Academy of American Poets, Poets & Writers, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and the Van Lier Foundation among others. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and she is also a member of the international writing faculty at the City University of Hong Kong.
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