Week One · June 25–29, 2012
Poetry from the Winners: Appreciating Contemporary Poems

Joan Murray
Are you someone occasionally baffled by poems in The New Yorker? Someone who was traumatized by poetry in high school? Someone who writes and wants to learn the “moves” from the stars? Join us as we read and discuss poems by recent Pulitzer Prize Winners, National Book Award Winners, and U.S. Poets Laureate (including Billy Collins, who appears at Chautauqua this week). Learn how they put together poems to give us insights and stir our emotions. No previous knowledge of poetry required.

Joan Murray is a poet, playwright, and fiction writer, whose five volumes include Dancing on the Edge and Queen of the Mist. She’s contributed to The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and The New York Times, and has been Poet in Residence at the New York State Writers Institute. Recipient of a second National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2011, she is editor of The Pushcart Book of Poetry and The Poems to Live By anthologies.

Week One · June 27, 2012
Master Class with Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins

Billy Collins

Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States, believes that poetry should be a part of daily life. During this two-hour master class, he will share his delight in poetry as well as insight into the creative process. Come expand your powers of observation and imagination as Billy Collins talks about how his poetry welcomes readers with humor but often slips into quirky, tender or profound observation on the everyday.

Wednesday, June 27 12:30-2:30 p.m.
$50

Week Two · July 2–6, 2012
From Trickle to Flow

James Armstrong
The hardest part of writing for most writers is negotiating the difficult relationship between the inner voice and the inner critic. This workshop is designed to help you do just that: develop a productive style of daily writing which will tap your full creative powers. You’ll discover how to write more surprising and more varied poems than you ever thought possible. Poets at all levels are welcome. Though we will focus on creating new work, you may also bring 15 copies of works-in-progress to the class. You are also welcome to send 1-2 poems by July 1 to James Armstrong, 258 E. 9th St., Winona, MN 55987 to discuss in class as time allows.

James Armstrong has published two collections of poetry, Monument in a Summer Hat and Blue Lash. He received the PEN-New England Discovery Prize for poetry in 1996, and he has been awarded both an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in poetry and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in poetry. He was an artist in residence at Isle Royale in 1994 and on Grand Island National Recreation Area in 2004. Armstrong teaches at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota.

Week Three · July 9–13, 2012
Poetry in Its Place(s)

Marjorie Maddox
This workshop will focus on writing about place – not only locations we inhabit physically but also realms where the imagination and spirit dwell: hometowns, downtowns, ball fields, cathedrals, or wherever your mind travels while you sleep. Come prepared to discuss and write; then write some more. You are welcome to bring 15 copies of 1-2 of your poems to discuss in class as time allows.

Marjorie Maddox, director of creative writing and professor of English at Lock Haven University, has published eight collections of poetry – including Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation (winner of the Yellowglen Prize) – and poems, stories, and essays in journals and anthologies. The recipient of numerous awards, she is co-editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and author of two children’s books: Rules of the Game: Baseball Poems and A Crossing of Zebras: Animal Packs in Poetry.

Week Four · July 16–20, 2012
Poetry and Healing

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Writing poetry can be healing because poetry makes us vulnerable. Each poet, however, must be vulnerable enough to allow language into the most painful, forbidden spaces where only language can go. Students in this workshop will explore memory in time and place, feeling free to connect the powerful nature of water and the use of images and language to find healing, laughter and life. Emphasis will be on writing without sentimentality. You are welcome to e-mail 2 poems by June 30 to pjw14@psu.edu or bring 15 copies to discuss in class as time allows.

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, a Liberian civil war survivor, is the author of four books of poetry, including Where the Road Turns. Her poem, “One Day” was featured in American Life in Poetry. She has been featured on numerous public radios, including NPR, the BBC, and Jamaica Radio. Recently awarded Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities grant to complete her Liberian civil war memoirs, Jabbeh Wesley teaches Creative Writing at Penn State Altoona.

Weeks Four and Five · July 16, 18, 20, 23, 25 & 26, 2012
Advanced Poetry Workshop: The Whole Poem

Neil Shepard
From first draft to final draft, we require strategies for seeing the whole poem, both its full potential for content and its most satisfying form. We require the intense perception of the first draft – to “see” not only the spark but all of the light that makes a poem glow. Then we need to “re-see” the poem, practicing the kind of deep revision that leads us to reconsider imagery, metaphoric subtexts, sounds and rhythms, and diction. Because this is an Advanced Workshop, we’ll also examine how our poems fit into the contemporary literary period, how they engage with or resist the expectations of the age. We’ll use poems from literary magazines to examine specific technical issues, but we’ll use your own poems as the focus and force of workshop discussion. In addition, we’ll consider writing exercises that might steer you toward new strategies and discoveries in making a poem. The class will meet on alternate days to allow time for writing and revision. Admission will be by advance submission only. Send two poems that you would like to discuss in the workshop by June 1 c/o Clara Silverstein, 216 Grove St., Auburndale, MA 02466. Limit: 8 participants. M, W and F, 1:15-3:15 p.m.

Neil Shepard ’s newest books are (T)ravel/Un(t)ravel, his fourth collection of poems; and an offbeat chapbook, Vermont Exit Ramps. Shepard has received States Arts Council grants from Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and he has been a fellow at the MacDowell Arts Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He teaches in the Wilkes University (PA) low-residency MFA program in creative writing, as well as at Poets House in Manhattan. He is founder and long-time Editor of the literary magazine, Green Mountains Review, and a founding member of the jazz-poetry ensemble PoJazz.

Week Five · July 23–27, 2012
Writing and Art: Shared Inspiration

Jim Daniels
Ekphrastic writing is written in response to visual art. In this workshop, we will look at various examples of ekphrastic writing in order to familiarize you with what other writers have done. Then we will look at some art ourselves on the grounds at Chautauqua and see what writing it inspires in us. Writers in all genres and at all levels are welcome. No previous experience with art, or with writing, is necessary.

Jim Daniels’ recent books include Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry, his thirteenth book of poems; Trigger Man, his fourth book of fiction; and All of the Above, his eleventh chapbook, all published in 2011. He has also written the screenplays for three films, including Mr. Pleasant (2011). He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He is the Baker Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University.

Week Six · July 30–Aug. 3, 2012
Is it Memory or Just My Imagination?

Gregory Donovan
Developing writers are often told: “write what you know,” but that may be poor advice. Two great powers are essential to writing poetry well: memory and imagination. Too much of one, and the writing may seem sentimental or self-absorbed; too much of the other, and it may seem willfully obscure. This workshop will explore how to balance those powers dynamically. Expanding their reach can be vital to the growth of a poet’s mind and work. You’ll be encouraged to write and hand around new poems during the week, but you are also welcome to send 1-2 poems before July 23 to Gregory Donovan, Dept. of English, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 842005, Richmond, VA 23284-2005, or bring 15 copies to discuss in class as time allows.

Gregory Donovan is the author of the poetry collection Calling His Children Home, which won the Devins Award, as well as poetry, essays, and fiction published in The Kenyon Review, New England Review, The Southern Review, storySouth, diode, Gulf Coast, 42opus, Copper Nickel, and many other journals. He is Senior Editor of the on-line journal Blackbird and is on the faculty of the graduate creative writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Week Seven · Aug. 6–10, 2012
Lies That Tell the Truth

Julia Kasdorf
"Art is the lie that tells the truth," said Pablo Picasso, thinking perhaps of cubist abstractions. But when it comes to writing poems, at one time or another every author has felt pinched between memory, imagination, fact, and the need to speak emotional truths. In this workshop, writers will be encouraged to create new drafts every day in addition to sharing 15 copies of pieces they may have brought along from home. We will read examples of contemporary poetry that speaks truthfully from personal experience or bears witness to public events.

Julia Spicher Kasdorf’s third book of poems, Poetry in America, was published in 2011. Her poems have won an NEA poetry fellowship and a Pushcart Prize, and appeared in numerous anthologies. She has also co-edited an anthology of poems about Brooklyn and has published a book of essays and a biography. She teaches creative writing at Pennsylvania State University.

Week Eight · Aug. 13–16, 2012
The Fine Line in Poetry

Gabriel Welsch
Poets debate whether lines are broken or built, are governed by the breath or meter, by position or juxtaposition, by negative space or implied margins, and more. We will explore different executions of this defining element of poetry, including the prose poem, with the aim of breaking new ground in participant work. We will experiment with approaches to the line as we read and write new work. You are welcome to send 1-2 poems before July 27 to Gabriel Welsch, 1700 Moore St., Huntingdon, PA 16652, or bring 15 copies of 1-2 of your own poems to discuss in class as time allows.

Gabriel Welsch is Vice President of Advancement and Marketing at Juniata College. He is the author of three collections of poetry, including most recently, The Death of Flying Things. His work appears widely in journals including Southern Review, New Letters, Harvard Review, West Branch, Chautauqua, Georgia Review, and Mid-American Review. A recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship for fiction, he also has published more than 40 stories in national journals.

Week Eight · Aug. 16, 2012
Master Class
Fine Tuning Metaphor with Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser

Ted Kooser

Ted Kooser, a former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, has been called a master of metaphor and in this class he will talk about how a metaphor can be taken from its simplest form, an isolated association, and integrated into the total fabric of a poem so as to become a part of the overall structure.

Thursday, Aug. 16 12:30-2:30 p.m.
$50

Week Nine · Aug. 20–24, 2012
Appreciating the Sonnet: The Powerful "Little Song"

Rick Hilles
In this moment when our survival has never been more indelibly linked to finding more sustainable ways of living, let’s take this intensive week to learn from what is arguably the most durable poetical forms in English: the sonnet. From Shakespeare to Heaney, let’s savor the sonnet’s “self-sustaining fuel” – its life-altering nutrients and energies – as we explore its most steadfast and edifying themes. No prior experience or knowledge of poetry required in this reading and discussion workshop.

Rick Hilles is the author of two poetry collections: Brother Salvage, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize; and A Map of the Lost World. His awards include a Whiting Award, a Camargo Fellowship, and the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship. He is an assistant professor of English at Vanderbilt University.