The Art of Writing Poetry

REVISED

Fall 2011 and Winter 2012 quarters

Faculty

Gail Tremblay visual arts, creative writing, poetry

Fields of Study

literature and writing

Preparatory for studies or careers in

creative writing, editing, and teaching English.

Prerequisites

Students should have reasonable college-level writing skills, such as may be gained from Freshmen English or Core program experience.

Description

Poets use language to create an experience for the reader by using images, metaphors, similes, rhythm and sound like musicians use notes, sound and rhythm to tempt audiences to feel deeply what can be known about the roots of the human condition. 

In this program, students will read poetry by a wide variety of writers, study poetic form and explore a variety of strategies for writing poetry. They will read Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry by John Frederick Nims and David Mason and will be required to write at least two poems each week and to present those poems for discussion in a writers' workshop.  Students will also be required to attend poetry readings, and to study poetry publications and strategies for publishing their work in a variety of magazines, journals and online sites. They will also have the opportunity to study chapbook and book length collections of poems and to discuss how poets choose and arrange poems to prepare them for submission to a press.

Location

Olympia

Online Learning

Enhanced Online Learning

Books

Greener Store

Special Expenses

Students will be expected to pay for transportation to poetry readings in Seattle and perhaps admission to one or two such events. Students will also be expected to make copies of two poems a week for the faculty and all the students in the program for writers' workshop.

Offered During

Day

Program Revisions