Paula Cisewski

Document Type

Syllabi

School

CLA

Department

CWP-MFA

Course Subject

WRIT

Course Number

WRIT

Course Section

8310

Course Title

Advanced Poetry

Academic Term and Year

Spring 2015

Credits

4.00

Area of Study

MFA, MFAE, MFAO

Course Description

Advanced Poetry MFA Only, MFA Writing Prerequisite: Groundings in the Craft: Elements of Poetry In this course we work toward the dual goals of preparing students to successfully complete a poetry thesis and become a poet in the world. The course is set up to let students engage with course materials and their writing as working artists. Students will work on full-length poetry manuscripts as we deeply immerse ourselves in the ongoing conversation of poets across time and place, through the study of both poetry and poets' thoughts on craft, influence, and process, as presented through craft essays and interviews. Poets studied will be a mix of the emerging, who may include Paisley Rekdal, Oliver de la Paz, Tung Hui Hu, and Kevin Young, and the established, who may include Brigit Kelly, Louise Gluck, Larry Levis, and Deborah Keenan. Though most student writing will be individual work toward a full-length, ordered poetry manuscript, each student will also write several reflections on poets studied, process, aesthetic, and vision. Most classes include multiple prompt suggestions and opportunities to share work; individual in-depth manuscript conferences with the professor are offered at midterm. Late in the semester, students will learn to draft project proposals and personal statements for a future grant, fellowship, or residency to work further on their manuscript-in-progress; materials students generate for this project might be used for artist statements written in Thesis Two, and for considering what revision on work done to this point — and life after graduation — might look like.

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