Writing the Environmental Poem: A Poetry Intensive with Emily Skillings

There are things / We live among ‘and to see them / Is to know ourselves.’ — George Oppen

In this generative workshop we will read poetry like writers, understanding our poems as being in conversation with poets past and present. Given the ecological crises we are facing, many of the poems we read will loosely focus on themes of environment, place, ecology, the pastoral, and the “necropastoral” (to borrow a term from Joyelle McSweeney). We will read works by poets and writers such as (but not limited to) Asiya Wadud, Wendy Xu, Kim Hyesoon, Marcella Durand, Muriel Rukeyser, George Oppen, Juliana Spahr, Camille Rankine, Myung Mi Kim, Brian Teare, and W.S. Merwin.

In this uncertain and destabilizing time, finding groundedness inside practice is both rewarding and necessary for us as writers. Instead of following the traditional feedback-based workshop model in which poems are written outside of class, this 3-week generative workshop will focus on creating a rigorous space for the practice of poetry. Each 2-hour workshop will begin with a mini craft lecture or guided close reading, followed by a series of structured writing prompts and opportunities for sharing and noticing each other’s work. In addition to class time, each registered student will also receive a one-on-one consultation with the instructor and will leave the 3-week course having written at least 6 new poems. Writers of all levels are welcome.

Class meets Thursdays: April 7, 14 and 21.