Visiting Poets, Spring 2009

 

Welcome! This wiki is for students enrolled in ENGL 699:001 Visiting Writers-Poetry

& for anyone who wants to learn more about our guest poets, Kevin Prufer & Kristin Prevallet.

 

Check the MFA program web page for full information about all visiting writers for this semester.

 

Enrolled students should post to the wiki--adding links, pages, or uploaded files. Others may read the wiki and post comments. You will find the course syllabus on this page. This link--here and in the sidebar--will take you to wiki instructions for the course. (Look at the bottom of this page for a link to full instructions on how to use pbWiki.) I also have provided links, in the sidebar, to basic resource sites for contemporary poetry--The Academy of American Poets, Electronic Poetry Center, and the Poetry Foundation--to get you started.

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Syllabus 

 

Visiting Poets, Spring 2009 Syllabus  GENERAL INFORMATION DATES, PLACES, & DEADLINES REQUIREMENTS Summary of Requirements Free help:

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

 

During this semester, there will be one, one-semester-hour section of English 699 concentrating on poetry.  The nature of each Master Class will be decided by the visiting poet, and may include workshop, lecture, or in-class writing. We cannot guarantee that every student will have a poem critiqued by each visitor.

 

Course policies and requirements for written work are set by the teacher of record, who also assigns final grades. Since students and the teacher of record don't meet regularly, 699 seminars sometimes result in misunderstandings, work done badly because expectations were not clear, etc. Don't hesitate to call or e-mail with questions, and in the meantime please read this syllabus carefully.

 

PLEASE NOTE DEADLINES. NO LATE WORK ACCEPTED. NO INCOMPLETES GIVEN.

 

DATES, PLACES, & DEADLINES

 

Kevin Prufer:  Monday, March 2, 2009

Reading:  Research I, Room 163, 7:30pm

Reception:  163 lobby, 6:30pm

Master class:  English Department Conference Room, Robinson A 447, 3-6pm

Manuscript due date:  February 17th by 5pm, NO EXCEPTIONS!  The manuscripts should be emailed to Jennifer Hostler as attachments.  They should include two poems.  Please also send them to your classmates. 

Notebook or Review(s) due to Susan Tichy's department mailbox: Thursday March 19, 4 p.m. (Your posts to the Prufer page should also be complete by this date.)

Poems & statement due to Susan Tichy's department mailbox: Thursday April 30, 4 p.m.

 

Kristin Prevellet:  Thursday, April 9, 2009

Reading:  Research I, Room 163, 7:30pm

Reception:  163 lobby, 6:30pm

Master class:  English Department Lounge, Robinson A483, 3-6pm

Manuscript due date:  March 27th by 5pm, NO EXCEPTIONS!  The manuscripts should be emailed to Jennifer Hostler as attachments.  They should include two poems.  Please also send them to your classmates. 

Notebook or Review(s) due to Susan Tichy: Thursday April 23, 4 p.m. (Your posts to the Prevallet page should also be complete by this date.)

Poems & statement due to Susan Tichy's department mailbox: Thursday April 30, 4 p.m.

 

REQUIREMENTS

 

1. Attendance at all readings and seminars by the writers conducting the section is mandatory, as is attendance at related events such as lectures or informal talks.

 

2. All students registered for this section will be asked to do some basic bio-bibliographical and critical research on the writers. Most of what you collect will be posted here, on the wiki. If you find things in hard copy and don't have easy access to a scanner, you may turn in paper copies to me along with your notebook. Please also post a note to the wiki, with full bibliographic information, so your classmates will know about what you've found.

 

3. All students registered for this section of English 699 will be asked to do one of the following:

• Write brief reviews of three books by the visiting writers for the section, i.e., two books by one writer, one book by the other. Each review should be 500-700 words long and should be double spaced and typed.  Do not exceed the length limit. Remember: as in real-world reviewing you must say a lot in your small allotted space.
  • Those who choose this option should consult with the teacher of record. Reviews must in some way reflect your reading of other critics, and be based on more than personal opinion and/or close reading skills. You must, in short, show you understand the poet’s work at a fairly sophisticated level before your praise or rejection means anything. These reviews are small, but they must be distillations of much thinking, not easy substitutes for same.]

 

• Present detailed writers' journals.  These must include: quotes from the authors' books and from thematerial gathered from reference works and published reviews; substantial notes taken during readings, master classes, and "talks" (if any); plus reflections on those quotes and notes. Your journal should be a writer's journal, filled with the sorts of notes, quotations and observations which interest you as a writer. It may also be a teacher's journal, organized in

  a way that will make it a resource for you in the future. It must also be legible:  if your handwriting is difficult to decipher, you will have to type the portions of your journal you hand in.

  • If you prefer to post your journal to the wiki, rather than hand it in to me, you may.
  • Every notebook must include interaction with the secondary resources available for these poets. You can print stuff out and annotate it, or comment on it in prose--suit yourself, but you must demonstrate you are reading and thinking, not just posting links or hitting Print.
  • How much is enough? For samples of "A" and "B" journals, click here!]

 

4. At the end of the semester, turn in to me

• Copies of the poems you submitted before the master classes. You should submit different poems to each class, plus ONE of the following options
  • Substantial revisions to these poems, accompanied by a 500-word informal statement about their revision and the impact (or lack of it) from the visiting writers on this work
  • New poems, accompanied by a 500-word informal statement about how the visiting writers catalyzed or influenced this work.
  • NOTE: This is 500 words about the whole manuscript, not 500 words per poem! Think of it as a friendly note to me, to let me in on your thinking as you worked on the poems.

 

5. Fiction and Nonfiction writing students taking the poetry section may submit a poetry manuscript as described in #4, or they may satisfy the requirement under #6.

 

6. Literature students and fiction students who do not wish to submit poetry manuscripts should write a 5-to-6-page essay (1250 to 1500 words) on the work of writers conducting the seminars. Essays are in addition to the mini-reviews and journals; they should compare the treatment of some specific element--e.g., prosody, imagery, metaphor, theme, and so on—in the two authors.

 

Summary of Requirements

 

You are expected to attend all readings, master classes, and talks (if any); locate, read, and annotate secondary materials on the authors; write either three mini-reviews or a substantial journal; and submit originals and revisions of poems discussed in workshops (or originals + new poems) accompanied by a statement, or [for students not in the MFA program in poetry] an essay on the visiting poets. How much is enough?

 

 

 

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