Archive for October, 2009
10-29-2009
Tim Seibles is coming next Wednesday! Yay!
Remember, Tim Seibles reads at 8PM next Wednesday in Alton Auditorium. I’m happy to pay the way in of any student who wants to go: just give me a head’s up in class the next few days.
Read about him here.
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10-28-2009
Oprah and James Frey, friends again…
The “situation” between Oprah and James Frey was much more complicated than we’d thought!
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10-25-2009
Reading Alternative
If you haven’t gone to a reading yet, there’s one Nov. 4th 8PM in Alton Auditorium — Tim Seibles. I think you’ll love him and I’m willing to pay your way in if you let me know in advance.
If this reading does not suit your schedule in any way, I have come up with an alternative assignment. E-mail me if you feel you’re going to need this alternative assignment. It requires a little bit of writing, but can be done any time.
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10-23-2009
Half and hour
So you’re dedicating yourself to sitting in front of the computer (or notebook) and trying to write for half an hour every day.
Every. Day.
And when you’re really stuck, or for fun, or because you like poetry, you might look off to the right and peruse one of the sites dedicated to poetry. Poetry Daily and Verse Daily have a new poem every day.
You can look at Emerging Writer’s Network for fiction-y ideas.
Think about it.
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10-22-2009
Workshopping Schedule
You need to bring in work on the day your name is listed. Work will be workshopped the following class day.
Friday Nov. 6: Exercises
Monday Nov. 9: Ed, Jason, Sam
Wednesday Nov. 11: Phil, Laura, Dean
Friday Nov. 13: Jessica, Stephanie, Bri
Monday Nov. 16: Danielle P., Justin, Alyssa
Wednesday Nov. 18: Brandi, Brigid, Quita
Friday Nov. 20: Anthony, Kevin, Kayla
Monday Nov. 23: Workshopping
W Nov 25 No class: Thanksgiving
F Nov 27 No class: Thanksgiving
M Nov 30 Conferences
W Dec 2 Conferences
F Dec 4 Class meets 2:30-5:00PM in F-202. Reading, food, festivities.
M Dec 7 No class according to extended class schedule.
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10-14-2009
Fiction notes
Fiction: How to Organize a Story
Drawing to get an idea of what could happen between the people (visualization).
Write beginning and then the ending…then connect the two with scenes in the middle.
Build world around the way the characters speak.
Can start with a detail and build around it.
Start with core concept such as the conflict inherent in two peoples’ dialogue.
Plot points: moments that complicate the story and give the reader pause/the reader asks herself, “Uh-oh, what’s going to happen now?”
Examples:
Shifts in character’s attitude
Changes in their situation
Obstacles thrown into their path that impede their success/achieving a goal
Reader knows a problem that character doesn’t know about.
Essential to the plot of a story:
Conflict
Man vs Man
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Society
Person vs. Himself
Woman vs. Technology J
Person vs. Universal Constant that Can’t be Changed/Goodness
METHODS OF ORGANIZING
1) Listing
2) “Postcards”
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10-09-2009
Conference Schedule
If you were absent Friday, please e-mail me and let me know when you can come see me for your mid-term conference. Below are some free slots. I have a little time Tuesday afternoon too if none of the times below are convenient.
Monday October 12
9:30 Dean
11:20 Alyssa
11:30 Brigid
11:40
11:50
12:00 Justin
12:10
12:20
1:00 Quita
1:10 Laura
1:20 Sam
TUESDAY October 13:
10:00AM Danielle
10:10AM
10:20AM Kayla
10:30AM Brandi
10:40AM Ed
10:50AM
11:00AM
11:30AM Jason
11:40AM Briana
11:50AM
12:00PM
12:10PM
12:20PM Stephanie
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10-09-2009
Sestina
End words: Peace (prize)/pieceFeatherGold(en)JumpGeorge ClooneyTo/two/too
STANZA ONE
This morning the president won a peace prize.
The bald eagle lost another feather
on his way to visit a squirrel eating Golden
Grahams. Pretty soon both sides jump
all over the president. Like George Clooney
he’s made a lot of bad decisions, too.
Donning a black vinyl suit for Batman II,
that hero cut Mister Freeze in two pieces:
If only the President would get a Clooney
If only he would pull that fascist feather
out his ass and quickly jump
out the window, then we’d be golden.
Like Run-DMC in search of King Midas’ gold,
the President took longer to
Pick a dog than to make the country jump
through health care hoops and peace
doesn’t reign when the feathers
In the President’s cap were put there by George Clooney.
To see another famous Sestina that includes pop cultural figures like the ones we used, see John Ashbery’s Farm Implements and Rutabegas in a Landscape.
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10-09-2009
“One Art”
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10-07-2009
Prompts you wrote
Here are some of the prompts you wrote in class Wednesday:
To Autumn by Keats
Visualize a location in a natural setting (forest, sea shore, etc.). Describe in a poem that location while evoking an emotional reponse to that place (contentment, peace joy, disgust, fear). In three stanzas include a) elements of the physical environment b) emotional response c) inhabitants of the environment.
Use concrete nouns, rhyme, short lines and write a poem about seasons.
How do you think subjects (people, animals, etc.) are interactive or influence the setting Keats created for the poem?
Write a poem about a season using only sensory details.
Write a poem that takes place during/involves qualities of a specific season. Include colors which are indicative of that season. Include one line of negative capability.
Personify mother nature as a person, and use a new form of voice in your own style to describe a season.
Write a poem based on Mother Nature’s reactions to the coming Autumn.
Write a poem that uses the change of nature (i.e. season) to represent a change in a person.
Personify a season and write a poem about how that season affects nature by using strong concrete imagery.
Write about your least favorite season, but try to find positive characteristics about it. Use personification with Keats’ poem as inspiration.
Describe nature using characteristics of animals, sounds, and sensations; however, use these things only as synechdoche.
Meditations at Lagunitas by Hass
Begin with an aphorism (yours or someone else’s) or truth. Provide a concrete and abstract example of the idea presented in the aphorism.
Write a poem which is a meditation about loss. Use imagery and concrete nouns and take all your feelings and put them on paper.
Think of a moment that felt or resulted in finality, or without the hope of getting better. Write a poem in a voice via a character who intends to surmount a finality.
Create a poem about a horrible event that interacts or is personified by a season or time of year.
Compare a breakup to an inanimate object *and* a time of year.
Write a poem about a loss and how recollection helps in the coping process.
Write a poem about a particular moment in your life and what that moment meant to you. Include your feelings at that time. Then reflect on that moment in the present. What does it mean to you now? How has the meaning changed if at all?
Write about how words or language affect the way you define moments in your life.
Think of a concept or idea that you agree and disagree with by demonstrating your position through sensory details and concrete descriptions that seemingly do not relate to the concept.
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