Both Fish and Fowl: The Prose Poem

In this generative eight-week workshop, we’ll discuss various prose poems, then write our own, in a warm and supportive environment conducive to creativity and artistic experimentation. We’ll refine and improve our work until each of us finishes the program with a minimum of two poems, ready to submit to journals for publication. Along the way, we’ll explore the work of modern masters including Ellen June Wright, Celia Woloch, Amorak Huey, Karen Volkman, and Gertrude Stein – as well as the grandpère of all prose poets, Charles Baudelaire – and will use their work as inspiration to create and revise our own poetry.

If you have previously taken Both Fish and Fowl (or Anna Scotti’s other prose poem course, Deep Waters) before, note that the materials and prompts have changed!

A successful prose poem is not at all unlike a good magic trick – the reader should be left slightly stunned, emotionally spent, and curious enough to go back and read the poem again and again. So what is a prose poem, exactly? Charles Simic defined it as “the monster child of two incompatible impulses,” one that wants to tell a story, and the other that wants to “freeze” an image so that we can look it over and think about it at length. Edward Kaplan, speaking of Baudelaire, said prose poems are “fables of modern life” in poetic form. I like to say it’s a form that looks like prose, but hits like poetry.

In this workshop, we’ll define the prose poem as a short piece that has many of the characteristics of poetry – compactness, precision of diction, lyrical language, imagery, intensity of emotion, and perhaps even rhyme, meter, and repetition – but without the line breaks, or lineation, that make other poetic forms familiar.

Each week, we will meet on zoom to examine and discuss prose poems by various working poets and by fellow students. Participants will learn to identify poetic techniques hidden within the prose form, and will offer one another feedback using the “sandwich” model of “praise, criticism, praise.” But most of our time will be spent writing prose poems of our own – exulting in the rule that in the prose poem, there is no rule but excellence!

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals:

By the end of this eight-week course, students will:

• Be familiar with a variety of prose poems by authors including Amorak Huey, Richard Siken, Ellen June Wright, Gertrude Stein, Charles Simic, Charles Baudelaire, Karen Volkman, and course instructor Anna Scotti.
• Have a strong sense of what the prose poem is …and isn’t.
• Have a good understanding of the conventions of submitting work to a literary journal for publication.

Writing Goals:

By the end of this eight-week course, students will:

• Have a minimum of two poems polished and ready to submit to journals for publication, or approaching readiness pending another edit or two!
• Have new tools and techniques for writing, critiquing, and understanding feedback.

Zoom and Wet.Ink Schedule

Class will meet for two hours once a week on Tuesdays, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time, starting January 9th. Each session will include a brief craft discussion, followed by workshopping of student work and a synchronous guided writing exercise.

Students will be asked to submit one poem per week (either an original poem, or a revision of a previously submitted poem), using the Wet.Ink platform. Work should be submitted by 6 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday preceding our class meetings.

Students should plan to read and make comments on a minimum of two other students’ work each week, using Wet.Ink. Please read and make comments prior to our zoom meeting on Tuesdays. The instructor will also make comments on poems. Every student will be “live-workshopped” at least once during the course.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Introductions and overview

In this first meeting, we’ll get to know each other! After a quick round of introductions, we’ll discuss course requirements, and we’ll learn the “sandwich method” of giving constructive criticism.

We’ll read the prose poem Dear Auden by Ellen June Wright and will examine what makes it work and how it differs from both prose and ordinary “line break” poetry. During a synchronous guided writing period, we’ll work from a prompt, thinking about how we might incorporate current events into our work, as Wright does. Dear Auden will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, though of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday.

Week Two: From the Prosaic to the Transcendent

We’ll examine Metonymy by Richard Siken. Our craft talk will include discussion of line breaks, metaphor, fragmentation, and imagery within Siken’s poem. We’ll also look at a short free-verse poem by the instructor, Onomatopoeia. How do these poets use a rather prosaic subject – grammar – for creative inspiration? After a synchronous guided writing period, we’ll examine the work of one or two fellow poets (from Wet.Ink submissions). Siken’s and Scotti’s poems will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday.

Week Three: Elephants and Birds of Beauty

This week, we’ll examine Gertrude Stein’s short prose poem, Much Later. Then we’ll workshop one or two poems by fellow students before spending some time writing from a prompt. Stein’s poem will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday.

Week Four: Worlds That Sing to You

Annie Lamott wrote, “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfold world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you.” This week, there’s no professional poem to deconstruct. Instead, we’ll have two intensive synchronous writing periods, punctuated by a discussion of student work.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday.

Week Five: Turn About Is Fair Play

I’ve read lots of your work! This week, we’ll read one of mine – Whisk. The poem will be posted on Wet.Ink, but students are also invited to listen to it here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/24/whisk

We’ll discuss Whisk and one or two student poems before writing together from a prompt inspired by deep-seated memory and family relationships.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday.

Week Six: Each Poem Is a Nation

We’ve been working together for six weeks! This week, we’ll read and discuss Anorak Huey’s Prayer for What I Do Not Want. After discussing the intersection between poetry that functions as memoir (Whisk, Much Later) and politically inspired work (Prayer, Dear Auden) we’ll write together, revising poems in progress or creating new work. We’ll share our work, then write synchronously again.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday. Note: This week, students will be asked to choose a poem of their own from those posted on Wet.Ink to read aloud at our last session. We’ll talk about this in class!

Week Seven: The Grandaddies

Charles Simic may be the best-known prose poet in English. His work is disjointed, dreamlike…almost surreal. We’ll read and discuss a poem from Simic’s The World Doesn’t End, as well as Charles Baudelaire’s Be Drunk. Then we’ll write together from a prompt. The Simic and Baudelaire poems will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read them before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Saturday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Tuesday.

Week Eight: Let’s Go!

No published poem will be discussed in this final session. We will hear student work read aloud by the authors. In addition to our usual intensive writing period, we’ll discuss submitting work for publication, including a review of standard formatting, does and don’ts, and some potential markets for your work. Of course, no one is required to submit work to journals following our last class, but it is strongly encouraged!

Students are invited to re-enroll in this workshop up to three times. Content and coursework will be adapted to the balance of new and returning students.

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