Storytelling is one of the deepest of human urges. It is why we write, and why we have literature and art. For a reader, reading a poem is a transformative experience in two ways: the reader apprehends the what of the poem (its content, its story) and inhabits the how of the poem (its structure, its form).  

 

In this three-hour craft class, we’ll examine how storytelling happens in a number of exemplary poems—how story and structure come into gorgeous dynamic. We will pay especially close attention to structure, what it is, and how it can be flexibly deployed in poems.

 

Additionally, we’ll look at surprise and the way it intensifies a reader’s sense of understanding and transformation. Our discussion will be in service, of course, to your own poems and the wiles of craft you might bring to them.

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About the Instructor:

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Rick Barot was born in the Philippines and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has published five volumes of poetry: The Darker Fall; Want; Chord; which received the UNT Rilke Prize, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award; and The Galleons, which was on the longlist for the National Book Award in Poetry. His latest poetry collection is titled Moving the Bones. Rick lives in Tacoma, Washington, and directs the Rainier Writing Workshop, the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at Pacific Lutheran University.

 

Click here to learn more about Rick.

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LEFT MARGIN LIT'S CANCELLATION/REFUND POLICY:

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If you find that you can't take a class for which you registered, you may request a refund, less a $25 administrative fee, at least 48 hours prior to the start of the first class session. If a class doesn't reach its minimum enrollment, it will be cancelled, and all students will receive full refunds.