Upcoming Kundiman Events:
The Poetic turn(s)
with matthew olzmann
september 13th–november 1st
mondays, 7:00–9:30 PM ET
“In fact, sometimes I turn to poems as a way of leaving the regular behind. In those instances, I might prefer to hear the voice of God in a poem, or the voice of a dinosaur, rather than my next-door neighbor.”
–– Matthew Olzmann, American Literary Review: “An Interview with Matthew Olzmann”
Everyone generally seems to agree that a poem shouldn’t end in the same place it begins. But when a poem changes direction, how do we know that this will be a rewarding path for it to take rather than just a “different” path? What is surprise, how is it created, and what makes it feel meaningful rather than random? How does a poetic turn create a lingering resonance? This eight-week workshop will look at various strategies for making resonant poetic turns. The class will consider how a reader’s expectations are established, and how those expectations might then be subverted, complicated, or intensified. The format will be a combination of discussions of selected readings, weekly writing prompts, and in-class workshopping. I’ll plan on doing a short individual conference with each participant as well. The goal is to emerge at the end of the class with (at least) eight newly-made poems, as well as some strategies to use in the poems you’ll continue to write long after our time together is over.
Selected Readings: Sarah Gambito, Ada Limón, Todd W. Kaneko, Lucille Clifton, Tania James, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Jason Koo, Carl Phillips, Jennifer Chang, Yusef Komunyakaa, Hanif Abdurraqib, Patrick Rosal, and others.
eligibility:
This workshop is open to only Asian American writers, and students must be able to attend all 8 sessions of the workshop. The non-refundable tuition fee is $495. This workshop will be limited to 12 participants and will be held over Zoom. There is one scholarship spot available, and the application is open through Monday, August 23rd.
Registration for this class is now closed.
FACULTY:
Matthew Olzmann is the author of Constellation Route (forthcoming, January 2022) as well as two previous collections of poetry: Mezzanines (selected for the 2011 Kundiman Prize) and Contradictions in the Design. A recipient of fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Olzmann’s work has appeared in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prizes, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Southern Review, and elsewhere. He is now a Senior Lecturer of Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and also teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.