OCER 5885 - Poetry Practice

Poetry Practice welcomes students who want to experiment with poetry, reading it, writing it, enjoying it. They will be encouraged to develop a weekly practice, working actively on their own way of writing. This creative course is open to hybridity: while an undeniable importance will be given to the poetic form, students should feel free to work on genre-defying texts. Each week, writing prompts will follow various formats to ensure experimentation. Said prompts may draw on 20th and 21st century poetry with references including but not limited to: Etel Adnan, Samuel Beckett, Ulises Carrión, Gloria Gervitz, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, bell hooks, Bhanu Kapil, Daljit Nagra, Maggie Nelson, Aram Saroyan, Claudia Rankine, Ocean Vuong…

No previous practice of poetry is necessary to take this course.

If some theory will feed the course, each session will primarily focus on practice through one writing prompt. Students will write in class with actual pen and paper before sharing their work to the group. Reading out loud, giving and receiving feedback is an integral part of the course.

The course will be "pass" or "fail". The validation of the course will be based on class participation, timely compliance with deadlines and overall quality of the involvement in the writing assignments.

Writing exercises will be done in class, however, additional edits, preparing feedback, and related work can be expected to be done in between sessions. Students should also be prepared to read significantly during the semester.