ENGL 207 - Writing Workshop: The Flesh

This is an introduction to poetry workshop that focuses on questions of incarnation, bodying forth, dance, breath, motion on the page, containing and spilling forms, and other carnal and sensory aspects of poetry and poetics. Students who have taken other intro to poetry workshops, such as ENGL 203 or ENGL 290: Ecopoetry Workshop, can take this course as well, as much of the material will be new, as well as the writing assignments, for the most part. However, the core text will remain the Steve Kowit book, In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet’s Portable Workshop. This class is a hybrid class, both creative writing and critical study of poetry about the body. Since the purpose here is to learn how to be a creative writer, not how to be a literary critic, you should read these poems and texts on poetics primarily for what they can teach you about how a poem is constructed and for the inspiration they can provide in the writing of your own poetry. The primary work students will do for the course is the writing of original poetry. This class does fulfill one of the workshop requirements for the Creative Writing Track in the English major.

3 credits