Upcoming Kundiman Events:
Architectures of Resonance:
Writing the Lyric Essay
with Yanyi
Sunday, August 22nd
1:00 PM–4:00 PM ET
“I realized all the prose poems [in The Year of Blue Water] explain the shit going on in my high lyric poems that I was too afraid to talk about directly [...] One day maybe I’ll write an essay about Asian American literature and the lyric form. There’s this idea that it is a cultural thing to evade or talk indirectly about what people say, but it also has to do with racism. Not being able to say the thing that you want directly is a consequence of not being allowed to have the things that you want in general.”
–– Yanyi, BOMB Magazine: “Love is Something We Inherit: Yanyi Interviewed by Sarah Sala”
The art of lyric essay is a mysterious one. A hybrid form between poetry and prose, the lyric essay excels in taking on the ineffable, that which escapes language and slips into experience; that which takes in the small and builds the gigantic; that which whispers at the edge of speech. The lyric essay, at its best, is a backdoor into diffuse topics, but first one must overcome the danger of dissipation.
In this one-day craft class, Yanyi will share the structures that have aided his own practice of lyric essay. We will answer, through a lecture, close-reading, and in-class discussion, questions around how to plan and construct lyric essays. What are the possibilities of the form? When should a piece become a lyric essay? How does one write a lyric essay, and what are some pitfalls one might run into? Participants will leave this workshop with a set of tools and prompts with which to consider their own burgeoning or ongoing lyric essays.
This class will be recorded and sent out to all registered participants the following week.
eligibility:
This craft class is open to all writers of color. The non-refundable tuition fee is $50. This class will be held over Zoom. There are scholarship spots available, and applications are open through Friday, July 30th.
Registration for this class is now closed.
FACULTY:
Yanyi is the author of Dream of the Divided Field (One World Random House, forthcoming 2022) and The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019), winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry, and one of New York Public Library’s Best Poetry Books of 2019. His work has been featured in NPR’s All Things Considered, Tin House, Granta, and A Public Space, and he is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from T.S. Eliot House, James Merrill House, Millay Colony of the Arts, and Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Currently, he is poetry editor at Foundry and gives writing advice at The Reading. Find out more at yanyiii.com.