Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
What practical skills does one need in order to speak in poetry’s enchanted chants? What historical background must one understand in order to engage in the subversive conversations of poetry now? This course attends to such fundamental prerequisites by combining an intense training in meter and rhythm, schemes and tropes, stanzaic forms and free verse, with a broad survey of poetry written in English. We will share and discuss our own writing in workshops—all the while, exploring the ways in which politics imbues our words and works. We will immerse ourselves in the rich Bay Area poetry scene by attending poetry readings, and by hosting our own end-of-the-semester poetry festival. Students will write and revise a chapbook.
Reading and Writing Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course is a tour of, and workshop in, creative prose forms. Students will read and discuss a wide variety of published work, grouped both by type (e.g., fiction, non-fiction) and by emphasis (e.g., character, time). The greater part of each meeting will be devoted to student writing. Students will build a portfolio of new work and contribute to an archive of resources. They will also develop strategies for revision, and learn how to form and participate in independent writing communities.
Creative Prose: Read More [+]