The problem at the heart of writing a poem is the problem of dramatization. That is, how do we dramatize in language--an arguably limited means--the dynamics of thought, sensation, mystery, knowledge, and unsayability that often comprise human experience?
In this class, we’ll discuss the crucial importance of syntax in vitalizing a poem. We’ll look at poems with powerful content and the syntactical correlatives the poets use in dramatizing that content. The poems will include the work of Louise Glück, Sharon Olds, Arthur Sze, and C.K. Williams.
Rick Barot has published three volumes of poetry: The Darker Fall (2002), Want (2008), which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and won the 2009 Grub Street Book Prize, and Chord (2015), all published by Sarabande Books. Chord received the UNT Rilke Prize, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award. It was also a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize.
Rick's work has appeared in numerous publications, including Poetry, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and two editions of the Best American Poetry series. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Artist Trust of Washington, the Civitella Ranieri, and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace E. Stegner Fellow and a Jones Lecturer. He lives in Tacoma, Washington and directs The Rainier Writing Workshop, the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at Pacific Lutheran University. He is also the poetry editor for New England Review. His fourth book of poems, The Galleons, is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in 2020.
More about Rick: http://rickbarot.com