Writing American Sonnets 4-Week Zoom Poetry Workshop, Starts Wednesday, March 1st, 2023
Begins Wednesday, March 1st, 2023
Weekly Zoom Meetings are on Wednesdays from 8:00PM - 9:30PM ET
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.
Taught by Jack Christian, author of the poetry collections Family System, winner of the Colorado Poetry Prize, published by Colorado State University's Center for Literary Publishing, and Domestic Yoga, published by Groundhog Poetry Press. His work has appeared in periodicals including Bennington Review, Black Warrior Review, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Slate. Jack holds an MFA in poetry from University of Massachusetts Amherst.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
“I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison…part music box,” Terrance Hayes writes in his 2018 collection American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin.
These lines suggest the magic of the sonnet, in which poets devise tight spaces to operate within and then escape, creating in the process “little songs” that are beautiful and fraught, and as complicated as love itself. In their brevity, sonnets find uncanny ways of articulating aspects of our consciousness that could be articulated no other way.
The sonnet’s magic and its sustained vibrancy will be the inspiration for our class. We’ll look briefly at the 500-year-old sonnet tradition, before moving into a primary consideration of recent sonnet innovations by contemporary writers such as Hayes, Diane Seuss, Bernadette Mayer, Karen Volkman, and Ted Berrigan. How do these writers continually re-imagine the form for present-day idioms and contexts? How might we do this, too?
We’ll also consider how sonnets encourage daily writing. Writing sonnets fosters generative writing practices while also laying groundwork for significant creative breakthroughs. In addition to supporting the production of wonderful poems, the practice of sonnet-writing is excellent cross-training for all forms of creative writing. The sonnets you write in this class are likely to catalyze future writing insights and ideas.
The class will culminate in creating and sharing sonnet sequences of your own design. As a class we'll form a nurturing community meant to encourage, challenge, and celebrate one another.
This class is geared toward writers of all levels, including those who are new to writing poetry and those who have developed sophisticated poetry-writing practices already.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Familiarity with contemporary sonnets and their connection to the sonnet tradition.
- Design of a daily writing project geared to sustaining writerly growth the encouraging creative breakthroughs.
- Practice writing contemporary American sonnets that add-to the possibility of what sonnets and what poetry in general can do.
TESTIMONIALS:
"I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your class. Prior to this, I had given up all creative writing and thought I could only produce academic writing. I cannot thank you enough for all of the kind and helpful comments you have left on my experiments, and the confidence you have given me to start actually writing things that I am proud of. This has been my favorite class I have ever taken, and I am sad that I didn't take a class of yours earlier."
"This one of the best classes I've ever taken - seriously. I had never written creatively before, but your and class' encouragement, critique, and enthusiasm was unmatched. The types of assignments we had pushed all of us out of our boxes and let us learn a new skill/style."
"Jack has an amazing way of engaging conversations and my peers were immensely helpful with their feedback. I felt both encouraged/validated while also seeing the room for improvement within my pieces. I never felt discouraged after receiving feedback, and Jack fosters a great culture within his class."
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
Weekly Zoom Meetings are on Wednesdays from 8:00PM - 9:30PM ET
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
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Weekly Zoom Meetings are on Wednesdays from 8:00PM - 9:30PM ET
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Class starts March 1st, 2023
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All classes will meet online via Zoom.