Overview

In this 8-week workshop, we will explore the lyric poem as an act of address—speaking to beloveds, strangers, the dead or unborn, the self, and the collective. Using Martin Buber’s I and Thou as a lens, we’ll read poems by Sappho, Dickinson, Glück, Ocean Vuong, and others, examining how poets transform intimate and impossible relationships into language. We will use the majority of our time together to inspire and critique your poems, within a space of supportive risk-taking and discovery on and off the page. Each week, in addition to readings, you will receive optional generative prompts, inspired by the model poems assigned. As we offer feedback to each other, we will consider revision techniques and refine our roles as readers and writers in the workshop environment. Each participant will receive written and oral feedback (from the instructor and peers) on 4 poems, and new lyric avenues between self and other.