Summer Seminars

David Belew asked that I compile a list of Summer programs in creative writing. These are of two sorts: colonies/conferences and academic programs.

Based on reports of the writing colony experience I have not had, I would recommend programs unless or until winning a fellowship, scholarship, or otherwise subsidized stay at a colony, such as Breadloaf, where hierarchies of paying vs. non-paying writers often develop.

The Poetry Society of America keeps an excellent list of links:
http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa-links.php

Naropa
http://www.naropa.edu/swp/index.cfm

Iowa Summer Writing Festival
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/iswfest/

Prague
http://www.praguesummer.com/

Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Kenya (don't know if Kenya is the place to be this summer -- though maybe it is? --)
http://sumlitsem.org/

New School for Social Research:
http://www.newschool.edu/summerwriters/

Then there are also continuing education courses in creative writing, such as those at New School for Social Research, Naropa, Columbia University, UCLA Extension. These are year round (not summer only) and occasionally online or for graduate or undergraduate credit:
http://ceregistration.newschool.edu/register/index.cfm?deptcode=NWRW&semesterpick=200730

Boston University has a summer term with creative writing courses.
So does Harvard, however many of these are not workshops led by published writers: google the faculty.
http://www.summer.harvard.edu/2008/courses/crea.jsp

The Kenyon Review has one at Kenyon in Ohio:
http://www.kenyonreview.org/workshops/wwinfo.php

Antioch's in Ohio is only a week:
http://www.antiochwritersworkshop.com/program.php

(there are lots of them which are just week-long intensives with lots of exercises, for example Wesleyan (CT), Aspen (CO), etc.)

Week Six

Week Six

Genre and Adaptation

In Granger’s:

Genre: The form of a poem in particular relation to its content. The term encompasses not only pastoral and lyric, which are conventional genres, but also apostrophe, dramatic monologue, nocturne, and so on.

Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships

http://poetryfoundation.org/programs/2008_Lilly_Fellowship_app.pdf

(go to this address to download entry form)

Five Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships in the amount of  $15,000 will be awarded to young poets through a national competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry. Established in 1989 by the Indianapolis philanthropist Ruth Lilly, the fellowships are intended to encourage the further study and writing of poetry. Applicants must be US citizens between the age of twenty-one and thirty-one as of  March 31, 2008.

Applicants should submit:

Completed application form

Ten pages of poems, double spaced

One paragraph explaining how the fellowship would aid the applicant’s work

A publication list (optional)

Do not include any additional material at this time (cv, cover letter, references, etc.). If you wish to be notified of receipt of your application, include a self-addressed, stamped postcard. Application materials will not be returned. Applications must be postmarked during the month of March 2008. Electronic submissions will not be considered. Finalists will be announced on August 1, 2008 at poetryfoundation.org. Winners will be announced by September 1, 2008.

March 18th in Sainer

I'm writing this from the e-mail room in Sudakoff, where I'm about to moderate the Modern Medievalisms panel. I love conferences. Highly recommend that you come over and attend something.

In any case, there's another campus event ALSO related to writing, in a sense, in Sainer March 18 (that's a Tuesday -- THE Tuesday before the next chapbook collective meeting).

Tuesday • Mar 18, 4 pm (note that this conflicts with class; I would prefer you attend class, but... spread the word...)
The Power of Women in Media, Communications & Entertainment

Carol Flint, TV producer (ER) (alumna)
Cathy Guisewite, syndicated cartoonist “Cathy”
Leslie Glass, journalist, playwright, and novelist
Susan Burns (moderator), editor, Biz941 (alumna)

Genre Theory

http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=464

Week Five

Aristotle's Poetics is brought to mind by Kate DeBolt's poem, mostly by the title ("Recognition Scene" -- I would cut the "The" because it is a recognition scene of a softsurreal sort rather than a poem about recognition scenes per se, tho it is a bit more ambiguous than "A Recognition Scene" would be).

I'm assuming you've read The Poetics -- there are many versions online -- hint, if you haven't, now's your chance:

At the Internet Classics Archive (ok, really frumpy html)
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html

At Perseus (great resource)

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0056

Aristotle's genres are Tragedy, Comedy, and the Epic, although the Comedy part is missing. It's that always the way?

There are some ideas in the poetics that are important to consider, especially given our rubric:

imitation/representation. what does it mean to imitate 1) nature, 2) another writer, 3) "reality"
beyond this, what does representation mean?

the classic book regarding this is Auerbach's MIMESIS. The classic scene is a recognition scene: Odysseus & Penelope.

interruption of another course poem, this one an ongoing project that Jeremy may share bits of, if he's happy with it. about writing an ars poetica. because, of course, THE POETICS is an ars poetica, albeit not written as poetry.

But I've several back burner things involving another group of ars poetica, perhaps more suited to Jeremy's task than Aristotle:

Philip Sidney, Defense of Poesie (i.e., what is it good for?)
at Project Gutenburg (great resource)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1962

the much later Percy Bysshe Shelley's Defence of Poetry
at Bartleby, pretty good resource, block pop ups
http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html

George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie
prosody, style, diction/decorum
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16420

Thomas Love Peacock, The Four Ages of Poetry
http://www.thomaslovepeacock.net/FourAges.html