POETRY WORKSHOP: DOCUMENTARY POETICS

Course Description

In this upper division creative writing workshop, students will explore the intersection of poetry and documentary forms in order to consider how language can be used to represent and interrogate lived experience. This workshop will focus on both traditional and innovative documentary poetics, examining how poets use archival materials, interviews, found texts, and personal accounts to create poetry that addresses issues of identity, politics, memory, and culture. Students will read a number of poetry collections in order to analyze how these poets use research, reportage, and narrative techniques in their work. Students will also write and share their own texts by experimenting with the many possible convergences between documentary practices and poetic conventions.

Required Text

Victoria Chang, Obit
Cathy Linh Che, Becoming Ghost
Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus
Muriel Rukeyser, The Book of the Dead
Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler
C.D. Wright, One Big Self