September 13, 2017 $315 | 8 Weeks |
In this course, students will continue to hone their poetic craft while focusing on creating a chapbook, or short poetry collection. Chapbooks are frequently the first single-author volumes published by poets, a bridge between writing individual poems and writing a full-length book. Chapbooks are structured in the same way as full-length books, but typically range from 15 to 25 pages in length. As such, the techniques studied in this course also apply to building a full-length collection.
This course presupposes the level of familiarity with poetic craft that students gain in my introductory course, “Machines Made out of Words: An Introduction to the Craft of Poetry” or from other introductory classes. For new poets, I recommend starting with the Intro course.
This course features more open-ended writing assignments than an intro class, more focus on ongoing revision, and the goal-oriented project of creating and polishing a chapbook. In addition to taking a deeper dive into the craft of individual poems and reading a wide selection of classic and contemporary poets, students in this class will also work on the relationship between poems within a collection, pacing and structure across the volume, etc.
By the end of this eight-week course, students will have drafted 6-7 new poems and combined them with previously-written poems (e.g., the poems written during the Intro course and/or poems students have written on their own) to create a complete chapbook. The course also includes bonus material on best practices for submitting chapbooks for publication.
Syllabus
| Course Sessions | Assignments | |
| 1. | Seven-Eighths of the Iceberg: Poetry and Revision | · Write 1-2 new poem(s); workshop |
| 2. | Influence & Imitation: Learning from Others and Making It New | · Write 1 new poem; workshop · Optional: Revise previous poem(s); workshop |
| 3. | Grammar for Poets, or, The Nuts and Bolts That Hold A Poem Together | · Write 1 new poem; workshop · Revise previous poem(s); workshop |
| 4. | Reading a Collection I: Putting Poems Together | · Choose a collection from the list of recommended books; read the collection and write a 500ish-word analysis of how the poems are ordered across the volume. · Optional: Revise previous poem(s); workshop |
| 5. | Short Poems, Long Poems: Pacing in Poetry | · Write 1 new poem; workshop · Revise previous poem(s); workshop |
| 6. | The Art of Allusions: Poetry as Dialogue | · Write 1 new poem; workshop · Optional: Revise previous poem(s); workshop |
| 7. | The Poet as Critic: Reading Others, Reading Yourself | · Write 1 new poem; workshop · Optional: Revise previous poem(s); workshop |
| 8. | Reading a Collection II: Voice, Style, Unity | · Choose a collection from the list of recommended books; read the collection and write a 500ish-word analysis of how the poems come together (or fail to come together) as a whole. · Complete your chapbook; chapbook workshop |
| * | Bonus Content: Submitting Your Collection | |
Student Comments
The lessons had very useful information and lots of poems for examples. Jonathan gave detailed constructive feedback that really helped me see how to improve my work. He was excellent in every regard. The two new classes Jonathan is delivering are exactly what I wanted. I plan to take both. Just want to thank you for this great learning experience. Barbara Ireland
I find you guys run great classes and this was no exception! I felt [Jonathan] was very thoughtful in setting up the material. He was engaged, thorough, and responded in a timely fashion. Andrea Sauder