Category Archives: Workshops

No-Comfort Zone Week Ending Sept. 23 2012

Posted on by
8

This week, I have continued with the Modern and Contemporary American Poetry course on Coursera, learning how to participate in a class that is bigger than my small town, at least population-wise. Al Filreisis the professor, and I send my thanks to him and to his great teaching assistants over at Kelly Writers House (and what a nice house that is!)

Kelly Writers House at the University of Penns...

Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve made another small breakthrough I think. Instead of worrying about the first assignment and fretting

that it is not “perfect”, I decided that to keep sane and up-to -date (well, almost!) I would need to let it be, and hand in well before the deadline.Starting tomorrow, we have to review our fellow students’ work.  Each of us has to do at least four. It will be interesting to see the different interpretations of Dickinson’s “I taste a liquor never brewed“.

Emily Dickinson

English: Passport photograph of American poet ...

This week, we’ve tackled Allan Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, Lorine Niedecker, Cid Corman and Rae Armantrout. Some of the poets I’ve never heard of before, so that is quite fun. For the coming week, looks like we are heavily into WCW, including Red Wheelbarrow

Little Red WheelbarrowChicken Coop

and This Is Just to Say

… I once took a silly Facebook quiz: What Poem Would You Be? and that poem is the one that is apparently me. Or I am it…

Plums in basket

Plums in basket (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

NO-COMFORT ZONE WEEK ENDING SEPT. 16 2012

Posted on by
4

Carol A. Stephen

This week my challenge was to start a 10-week course through Coursera

on Modern and Contemporary American Poetry given through the University of Pennsylvania. (ModPoPenn). This is a free course offered via a MOOC platform, or Massive Open Online Course.

Why massive? Well, there are more than 20,000 registered students. Yes, that’s right. Twenty thousand.

I had read about this back sometime in the early summer, and it sounded like a good course that would fill in the many gaps I have in my knowledge of American Poetry. I’ve heard of various schools like the Language Poets, the Post-Moderns, the Experimental.

But I wasn’t clear on what those were, or who belonged to which group.A week in now, and it has been wonderful, amazing, somewhat overwhelming. The number of discussions and posts going on make it hard to know where to focus, but I think I have a better idea how things will go from now on. Certainly I can’t read or respond to every post. So I will have to choose among them.

Already I have learned yet another term, proto-modernists, as we study Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

and Walt Whitman. They are leading us into

Steel engraving of Walt Whitman. Published in ...

Steel engraving of Walt Whitman. Published in 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Modern Poetry. In spite of how well-known these poets are, I have to admit to not reading them before. So it is interesting to read two different poets, both of whom were moving away from what was then the popular approach to writing poetry.

Thanks to Professor Al Filreis and the TA’s who are looking after us and guiding us along through the maze of the MOOC and the labyrinths of these two amazing poets!

Related articles

Hot Ottawa Voices – Readings by four Ottawa Poets – Tree Reading Series Coming Up on August 14th!

Posted on by
Reply
The Ottawa Arts Court. Formerly the Carleton C...

The Ottawa Arts Court. Formerly the Carleton County Courthouse, the building now serves as Ottawa’s municipal arts centre. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Tuesday, August 14th, I have been chosen to read as one of four Hot Ottawa Voices, along with David Blaikie, Guy Simser and Shai Ben Shalom.  The event takes place at Tree Reading Series, Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa. 8.p.m.

This is such a great opportunity! Thanks, Tree!

Before the readings,  at 6:45 p.m.  there’s a  free workshop:

Pearl Pirie

Pearl Pirie (Photo credit: pesbo)

Pearl Pirie on Radical Revision.  For more information, check out the link here:

Readings – Tree Reading Series.    Hope to see everyone there!

No-Comfort Zone Week Ending April 23, 2012

Posted on by
1

Well, this was a busy but successful week. I attended two meetings on Monday, a lunch appointment on Tuesday and a much-anticipated and dreaded doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. But it appears I must have been doing something right on the health score, as my tests showed improved numbers. This is kidney-related, so has been an ongoing concern for several years now, and a complex one to deal with as far a diet goes.

What else? Well, on Friday I sent off my very first non-contest related submission to a national literary magazine. With some help from my friend Claudia. I promised her that it would be for this first one only, just to get me past the initial block. So that’s done. This week I am prepping for the Massachusetts workshop. Good news there too, as my brother will be back in town to cat-sit and house-sit etc. Have to admit though that the maps look rather confusing. Thank goodness for GPS.

I managed yesterday to catch up on both poetry challenges. But today I must clean up my desk so I can start the next batch of paper piles. My goal for the week to come is to work on Massachusetts-related “homework” and to pull together all the info I want to have on hand about the trip, the inn, and the workshop. And my travel lists. Only three weeks away now!

We’ll be staying here: http://brookfarm.com/ which is where most of the workshop will be held, but we will also take in some local sites. See below. The Mount was Edith Wharton’s residence, Steepletop was Edna St. Vincent Millay‘s. And I must mention our leader/instructor, James Arthur. James is a American-Canadian poet, writer, teacher, who grew up in Toronto but who now lives in the U.S. He was the instructor for the Stanford online 10-week poetry course that I took back in the fall of 2010. Two of the other students from that class will also be attending, so we will finally all get a chance to meet in person!

Pics of two places we’ll be visiting while in Lenox: Edith Wharton‘s Estate The Mount, Lenox  (our last day workshop will be held here)

The Mount, 2006

The Mount, 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alternative view of the front side of The Moun...

Alternative view of the front of The Mount, former home of Edith Wharton, in Lenox, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Main house at Steepletop Farm, home of Edna St...

Main house at Steepletop Farm, home of Edna St. Vincent Millay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)