Questions?
Comments?

Last updated on
1 February, 2009

Return to:

Poetry: Writing for Literary Publication
with Ren Katherine Powell

REGISTRATION:

COST, LENGTH, PREREQUISITES:

No prerequisites.

Standard course: $120 / 4 weeks. Click here to register

Extended schedule: $150 / 8 weeks. Click here to register
Extended course gives you two weeks to do each lesson but contains NO additional material.

Ren Powell at poetryreader@mac.com

(If you are writing poetry for therapeutic purposes, this course is not for you. Please ask the course instructor if you are in doubt.)

If you write poems to express your feelings or share your personal experiences, you may have already discovered that the poems that deeply affect your friends and family members won't necessarily move readers who don’t know you. This course is for the poet who aims for publication in literary journals, anthologies or chapbooks—it will help you move from the emotive language of light verse and the private language of poetic diaries toward literary prosody and publication.

This course will help you move from the emotive language of light verse or the private language of poetry notebooks toward literary prosody. You will learn when to tell the whole story and when to tell enough of the story to invite readers inside to look around for themselves.

This course approaches poetry as an art form that is similar to painting: a work met and entered into by the viewer/reader regardless of the personality behind its creation. When a reader buys a literary journal and opens the pages, she doesn’t know you or how much broccoli means to you—and she doesn’t want to. She wants to read a wonderful poem.

No matter how mundane you think your life has been it is rich with the stuff of poems. No matter how terrible your childhood was, you can write poems that will touch people with the truths within your story: you can make the reader feel through you, not for you.

COURSE OBJECTIVES. The student will be able to distinguish greeting card/light verse from literary poetry, and to identify confessional aspects of poems. The student will have written and edited at least six poems in various styles. The student will have submitted at least two poems to three venues for publication.

Week One: Why the Hallmark Company Does So Well

1. The student writes an introductory letter with expectations for the course.
2. Lesson: I Love You, I Love You, I Love Pizza, Too! (Instructor’s essay and links)
3. Reading and assignment: Comparing poems online (links provided). The student chooses a greeting card text he or she likes and explains why. Then writes his or her own greeting card verse. Finally, he or she writes a more literary version of the experience alluded to in the greeting card verse.

Week Two: An Introduction to the Speaker

1. The student receives feedback on his or her first assignment.
2. Lesson: Look Who’s Talking! (Instructor’s essay and links)
3. Reading and assignment: The essay poses several questions for the student to consider. The student may or may not choose to share his or her answers with the instructor. The student writes a confessional poem. Then writes another version of the poem, avoiding the confessional style.

Week Three: So What If It’s True!

1. The student receives feedback on the poems from week two’s assignment.
2. Lesson: Tell Me About It (Instructor’s essay and links)
3. Reading and assignment: The student chooses a confessional poem or dramatic narrative and explains what he or she thinks the speakers want from the reader. The student then writes a response poem. The student picks a topic for a new poem and makes a list of details he or she could include. The student chooses only a few of these and writes the new poem.

Week Four: Put Yourself Out There

1. The student receives feedback on the poems from week three’s assignment.
2. Lesson: Are You Ready? (Instructor’s essay and links) 3. Reading and assignment: The student finds five online poetry journals that feature (or have many) lyric poems. The student submits at least two poems to three of these journals and explains why he or she chose those particular venues.

PLANNED HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS BY WEEK

• Week One: Write one letter and two poems, read brief analysis, one hour online. (6-8 hrs.)
• Week Two: Write one comparative analysis (two-three hours), two poems, and read online material. (6-8 hrs.)
• Week Three: Write analysis of two poems and write two response poems, readings. (4-5 hrs.)
• Week Four: Reading from journals, comparative analysis. (up to 6 hours).

Ren Powell is the founding editor of Babel Fruit: Writing Under the Influence and an associate editor of the poetry journal Poemeleon. She is the author of two books of poetry (Fairy Tales and Soil, 1999 and Mixed States, 2004) and ten books of translations.

Her own writing has been translated and published in Spanish, Norwegian, Croatian, French, Italian and Farsi; and her performance work has been staged in the US, Canada and Norway. Her poetry has appeared in International PEN Magazine, Segue, Beacons, Ice Flow, Salt River Review and Prick of the Spindle among other journals.

In 2004, Ren Powell received her MA in Creative Writing. The core of her thesis was a memoir in verse. Ren Powell is a member of the Norwegian Writers' Union and the International PEN's Women Writers Committee Human Rights representative. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Lancaster University in England.

Born in California, she currently lives on the West Coast of Norway.