Class Description
A patient lies on a steel table, while everyone—practiced surgeons and amateurs—sharpens their instruments. Let’s suppose your poem is on the table. How do you keep from killing it?
~Kim Addonizio
Fledgling writers often presume that poems arrive fully developed in white flashes of inspiration, but revision and its processes are the cornerstones of poetry. You’re encouraged to bring writing that you’re stuck on to our class session. During the course, we’ll examine strategies for revision. We’ll look at first and final drafts by a wide range of poets. Through workshop, we’ll streer several pieces of your own writing through multiple stages of revision. By the conclusion of our session together, you’ll have polished writing to show for your efforts. Most importantly, you’ll have learned valuable approaches to revision that will inform your writing choices beyond the classroom. Our reading for the class includes: Li-Young Lee, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Kevin Young, Patricia Smith, Henri Cole, and Eduardo Corral.
Other classes in this series:
- Songs That Come Apart Like Rosaries: Image and Metaphor in Poetry
- Fingerprints and the Adaptability of Forms: Structure and Syntax in Poetry
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.