The Doghouse Poetry Series
Join poet Robert Fanning for a series of six-week poetry courses designed for beginning and advanced poets. If you'd like to register, download the brochure [PDF] (which contains the registration form) and an application (introductory course [DOC] and advanced course [DOC]) and reserve your spot today! Spaces are limited and are going fast.
Unlike typical workshops in which you read early drafts by others in the group; in these courses, you will close-read published work to sharpen your critical ear- and eye-skills you will apply to your own writing. You're encouraged to sign up for either the entire Introductory or Advanced Course, or both, based on your skill level and needs. It is also possible to register for individual workshops.
The Doghouse Poetry Series is hosted by the Marick Press Authors Workshop Series. All sessions will take place at the Marick Press House, 15120 Kercheval Avenue, Grosse Pointe, MI on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Marick Press books will be available for workshop participants for a 40% discount.
Advanced Course: January/February 2008
In this series designed for advanced poets, participants will sharpen their critical eye and ear. Participants will write annotations of individual poems, practice scansion, and receive thematic writing assignments to complete both in and out of class. The instructor will also provide close-readings of new poems. Applicants should be those poets who are very familiar with the art form and have aspirations (or experience) toward publishing their work.
The cost is $300 for all six, two-hour long sessions. Individual sessions are $75. (Individual Session details below.) The application deadline is January 4, 2008. Spaces are limited and first come, first serve.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
WELCOME TO THE DOGHOUSE 2 — We will begin our series by discussing the wide spectrum of poetics, and the importance of our own unique aesthetic values in our growth as writers.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
MAPPING MY COASTLINE — What is the shape of your aesthetic? Each student analyzes their own critical preferences, discussing selected poems in depth, including one of their own.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
DEMYSTIFYING METER — This week, we will review basic poetic meter, as well as discuss and practice prosody and scansion, seeing how this practice can benefit our own writing.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
BEHOLD THE LINE — In this session we will read aloud and discuss the sonic texture an individual line in a poem can create. We'll see how a line break can infuse or sap a line. What makes a line strong? What is the purpose of the line?
Saturday, February 9, 2008
THE UNIVERSAL SELF — To what extent are poems “autobiographical”? What is “universality?” What is the history of self-as-subject in poetry? In this session, we will review a wide array of poems, analyzing them from the lens of self-disclosure, and will discuss the nature of proximity between reader and speaker and the effect this has upon the poem.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT — We will complete our series with a reading and presentations of individual work, including readings of our own final essays.
COMPLETED: Introductory Course: Oct/Nov 2007
In this series, participants will learn to close-read poetry for pleasure as well as identify basic elements of the craft, such as imagery, metaphor, form, subject and diction. Writing assignments will be given both in and out of class, and participants will receive comments on written work from the instructor. Applicants should be curious to learn more about poetry either for their own edification, or to improve their writing.
The cost is $240 for all six, two-hour long sessions. Individual sessions are $60. (Individual Session details below.) The application deadline is September 29, 2007.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
WELCOME TO THE DOGHOUSE — In this session, we will explore what a poem is—by reading a sample of various shapes and styles of poetry throughout history. We will discuss line breaks and stanzas, and overview how various elements of the craft are employed to heighten the affect of a poem. We will discuss the art of close reading, and the "lenses" we can look through when reading a poem—to give us a complete picture of the poem.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
THROUGH THE EYE — In this session, we will discuss the subtle complexities of subject matter, theme, tone, imagery and metaphor. We will examine how a poem focuses the poet's and the reader's attention on the self and the world, including a discussion of individual style and voice, and a spectrum of subjects: humorous, spiritual, psychological, and political.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
HAMMER, ANVIL, STIRRUP, SOUL — In this session, we will examine the sounds of language and the musical elements of the craft, including internal and end rhyme, meter, assonance and alliteration, and how these elements work in conjunction with a poem's subject matter.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
THE SHAPE OF THE VESSEL — This week we will read various formal poems and free verse poems and discuss their varied effects. We will continue our discussion of line and stanza and focus closely on rhyme and the patterns of language.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE — This week we will look more closely at the idea of the "speaker" in poems—examining the varying degrees of distance between the speaker and the reader in several poems. This discussion will include the idea of a poem's intended audience, and the notion of personal/confessional writing.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT — Wrapping up the series, we will discuss the lifecycle of a poem—including ways to jumpstart your writing, the importance of free-writing and journaling, editing, preparing poems for publication.