Class

Risk, Reveal, Reinvent: A Poetry Revision Primer

Marie Howe once described her revision process as an attempt to uncover the poem's "organic heart, its unsayable necessity." In this class, we will dispel with the notion that revision is simply an erasing of error; instead, we will treat revision as an exciting mode of discovery. Ultimately, you will leave this class with revisions, yes, but also with a deeper understanding of your own work and seeds for new projects.

Poets whose work we will consider include Paige Lewis, Ross Gay, Jenny George, Ilya Kaminsky, Ada Limon, and others. Through on-the-spot prompts, discussion, reflection, and myriad rewriting methods (including a game of chance!), we will uncover and write toward our poems' "unsayable necessities."

This class is intended to shake things up—to identify some of our writing habits and unearth stimulating ways to break those habits, both in the drafts we rework in class and going forward, in new work—while having fun.

Please bring one to four poems you'd like to reconsider via digital copies to class.

This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book; we encourage participants to be fully vaccinated and masked in the interest of everyone’s safety. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.