March 2008 Poetry Conference
The schedule for 2009 will be available later this year.
Poetry Conference Schedule
Friday, March 28
4 – 6 p.m. Registration and Welcome Reception
6 p.m. Dinner
7 – 8:30 p.m. Faculty Introductions and Readings
Saturday, March 29
8 a.m. Breakfast
9 – 10:30 a.m. Workshops & Seminars
10:45 a.m. — 12:15 p.m. Workshops & Seminars
12 p.m. Lunch
1:30 – 3 p.m. Workshops & Seminars
3:15 – 4:45 p.m. Workshops & Seminars
3:00 – 5:30 p.m. Books available for purchase and signing
5:30 – 6 p.m. Guided mediation and writing with Marilyn McEntyre
6 p.m. Dinner
7 p.m. Philip Levine reads his poetry
Sunday, March 30
8 a.m. Breakfast
9 – 10:30 a.m. Master Class with Philip Levine
10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Workshops & Seminars
12 p.m. Lunch
1:30 – 3 p.m. Workshops & Seminars
3 – 3:30 p.m. Final gathering and closing
Workshops & Seminar Topics
This year we are designating sessions as either “seminar” (meaning the focus is primarily on instruction, teaching or discussion) or a “workshop” (which means the session is focused primarily on reading and critiquing student work). These categories are not stringent, but only suggest what will be the primary (not only) method of instruction. There are six sessions total and we suggest selecting a mix of both “workshops” and “seminars” for your top choices.
Below is a list of all seminars and workshops available. Almost all will be offered more than once. They are listed alphabetically by faculty member (bios), first seminars, then workshops.
Registered participants will receive information about how to sign up for preferred sessions prior to arriving at the conference.
SEMINARS
Christopher Buckley
Seminar: Poetry of Philip Levine
A class—as comprehensive as possible in the time alloted—to read and examine the growth and development of one of our most important poets over the last 40 years. For the Univ. of Michigan Press’ Under Discussion Series I have edited, On the Poetry of Philip Levine: Stranger to Nothing (1991); I have published essays and reviews of his books as well as interviews with Levine, and I have contributed the biographical/critical essays on Levine to AMERICAN WRITERS (Charles Scribners’ Sons) and to the Encyclopedia of American Literature, Oxford Univ. Press, 2003. We will look at a very small part of one or two of these essays to provide an entry into the poems themselves. I hope to look at a dozen or so poems that will show the development of Levine’s poetry from 1960 to the present and so give participants some notion of the accomplishment of one of the 20th & 21st centuries most essential poets.
Seminar: Autobiography: You & Not You
We will examine a mix of autobiographical poems by several important contemporary poets: handouts: Hikmet, Levine, Wakoski, Soto, Young et al. We will examine the poems so that strategies are revealed to the participants about how to approach the autobiographical poem from a literal/historical perspective as well as from a fictive or inventive one. The autobiographical poem ranges from the serious and poignant to the humorous.
Ellen A. Kelley
Seminar: Revising Revision: Finding the poem behind the poem
In this class students will practice new approaches for revising their poetry drafts. **Required: students must bring at least two poems-in-progress for in-class revision exercises. Please note: this is not a critique workshop.
Seminar: Urban Exploration: Discovering poems in cities, real and imagined
This class will investigate place, specifically cities, as a wellspring for poetry. Via studying sample poems and participating in several writing exercises students will generate material for new poems. Please note: this is not a critique workshop.
Perie Longo
Seminar: “Poetry Found in the Landscape of Our Origins.”
Based on an article “The Art of Finding” by Linda Gregg, we will explore how our roots feed us material for our poems, influence our perception, and take us to the story which restores. Writing exercises will be included.
Marilyn McEntyre
Seminar: Deep Play —Where Poetry Begins
We’ll consider how the work of crafting poetry has its roots in play, what kinds of word play, mind play, playfulness help prepare the ground for poetry, and why it makes a difference to approach poetry as a high form of play.
Seminar: The Line and the Sentence —How Poems Remake Meaning
Here we’ll consider units of meaning, what you can do with a line, how line breaks reconfigure the thought of a sentence, and how to work in the borderland between prose and poetry.
Seminar: Imitation —The Road to Originality
In this session we’ll practice and consider the value of close imitation and why and how it works to help develop a stronger sense of one’s own unique style and work.
Chryss Yost
Seminar: Repetition, Rhythm, & Rhyme: Using Formal Techniques to Craft Memorable Poetry
Why do some poems stick while others slip away? What are the secrets of unforgettable poetry? This seminar will focus on techniques you can learn from the masters and apply to your own writing.
Seminar: Prosody 101: What Every Poet Should Know about Poetic Form
What makes a sonnet a sonnet? Understanding poetic structure can help your poems sing without becoming sing-song. You’ll learn to recognize basic meters and forms in this seminar.
Gary Young
Seminar: The Prose Poem
Seminar: Talking to God
Gary Young is one of the premier Prose Poets in America. His work has been featured in magazines including The American Poetry Review and The Kenyon Review. In 2003 he won the William Carlos Williams Award for No Other Life.
Paul Willis
Seminar: Poetry Of Encounter
We will talk about this very Wordsworthian basis for writing a poem of existential encounter with people and things outside of the self. After looking at a few sample poems, we will draft our own and share some of the results.
Seminar: Writing The Wild
We’ll talk about strategies for writing poems immersed in the natural world. Bring copies of your own “nature poems” so that we can discuss your work.
WORKSHOPS
Christopher Buckley
Workshop: Read & Critique with Buckley
A traditional poetry workshop focusing on the poems presented by the participants. Comments and suggestions for revision are fielded from the workshop as well as the workshop leader in order to support the poet in the next draft of the poem. Rigorous critique aimed at small and large points of craft, voice, and strategy as well as overall subject and content. It is important for the poet to hear what is working, what is original and compelling, as well as what is worn or not working. A good poem requires many drafts. We re trying to help the poet with the next step in the process. Participants need to bring 15-20 copies of a poem they would like to have “workshopped.”
Lois Klein
Workshop: Seeing the Light of Poetry through the Cracks in Our Lives
In one of Leonard Cohen’s songs he writes about the grace of the cracks in our lives: “There is a crack in everything/and that is how the light gets in.” Where does the light of feeling and poetic perception shine through the cracks in your life? How can you find the best words to express it? This will be a largely experiential workshop, with an emphasis on writing and sharing in an atmosphere of safety and respect.
Perie Longo
Workshop: “The Song inside the Poem.”
Bring 10 copies of 2 poems for commentary, focusing on the music/lyricism/rhythm within.
Marilyn McEntyre
Workshop: Guided writing exercises
This session will be mostly writing exercises, with short reflections on process between them.
Barry Spacks
Workshop: Perfecting Poems
Barry Spacks teaches at UCSB and has published nine poetry collections. He was the first poet laureate of the city of Santa Barbara and held that title from 2005-2007.
Workshop: Poetic Strategies
Barry Spacks teaches at UCSB and has published nine poetry collections. He was the first poet laureate of the city of Santa Barbara and held that title from 2005-2007.
David Starkey
Workshop: Crafting & Revising Your Poems
David Starkey’s workshops will provide close readings of and constructive feedback on YOUR poems, those you have already written and which you bring with you to the conference. This is the place to try out new work in a reasonable, supportive environment. David is the Director of the Creative Writing Certificate Program at Santa Barbara City College.
Chryss Yost
Workshop: For Those About to Rhyme: A Workshop for Formal Poetry
If you’ve been experimenting with form, this workshop will help you to craft your poems with confidence. Crafting formal poetry takes time, so rather than writing during this workshop, you should plan to bring some of your own poems with you. We’ll start with a brief overview of poetic terms, then workshop your poems.
Paul Willis
Workshop: HIKE-KU
A follow-the-leader writing experience in which we stroll the grounds and adjacent trails, pausing to draft short poems in response to specific places. Participants will have a chance to read aloud from their drafts at the end of our walk.