padcha, i like to think of workshops, or mfa programs in general, more as places for thinking and places for connecting with other thinkers. and less as little craft training machines.
thus constant emphasis on doing as much as you can to enter into community of writers...reviewing books, going to readings, participating in email discussion lists, talking to other poets at bar, etc. poetry (and publication) as a social life not as an endorsment system.
this weekend joel kuszai gave a talk on how we should see small press poetry world as international criminal syndicate. he was talking about national writers union, a leftist activist group of writers, from the 1920s-30s as the model. i like this model.
kristin also mentions lifestyle. this is big negotiation. lots of different answers which depend on what sort of money one has in one's pocket on most days. poets, w/o much money in their pocket by fate, work. this might be something that is best seen as a way of learning rather than a liability just because you have to do it either way, why not see it as something that is a benefit and maybe it will become one. i always think k-12 teacher is good job for poet starting out. you get holidays and summers off. i recommend special ed and developmental reading especially (lots of need in these areas; less students). mills has great certification program. but you can teach in private schools w/o certification. also international teaching racket here. check out the carney sandoe agency. they have website where you can register and if they take you, they will place you in a job. other jobs poets tend to do: proofreading, arts admin, bartending, librarian (big popular poet job at the moment).
i don't know where you, padcha, can find out more about the pedagogical issues other than that elephant book that you already read last semester. there are lots of exercise books for teaching creative writing. you could look at those. that sort of new age genre also, writing down the bone. etc. maybe that new daniel kane book would help: What Is Poetry: Conversations With the American Avant-Garde. perhaps you should write a book for us to read.
i was talking with jena, from whom i stole this workshop format, over the weekend. she was talking about how doing the processes, rather than the sort of generic do this and do that feedback, takes a certain higher level of generosity and that is the challenge of making it work finally. that to make it work you have to ask not what poem i would like better, but what am i doing as a reader. that the processes when they work are about interacting rather than rewriting.
on WALKS, i will probably go to barge walk on sunday unless i have to get bill from airport then. i would like to go to peralta house. and kristin, right?, is planning a black panther tour. the albany bowl is worth a walk.
thus constant emphasis on doing as much as you can to enter into community of writers...reviewing books, going to readings, participating in email discussion lists, talking to other poets at bar, etc. poetry (and publication) as a social life not as an endorsment system.
this weekend joel kuszai gave a talk on how we should see small press poetry world as international criminal syndicate. he was talking about national writers union, a leftist activist group of writers, from the 1920s-30s as the model. i like this model.
kristin also mentions lifestyle. this is big negotiation. lots of different answers which depend on what sort of money one has in one's pocket on most days. poets, w/o much money in their pocket by fate, work. this might be something that is best seen as a way of learning rather than a liability just because you have to do it either way, why not see it as something that is a benefit and maybe it will become one. i always think k-12 teacher is good job for poet starting out. you get holidays and summers off. i recommend special ed and developmental reading especially (lots of need in these areas; less students). mills has great certification program. but you can teach in private schools w/o certification. also international teaching racket here. check out the carney sandoe agency. they have website where you can register and if they take you, they will place you in a job. other jobs poets tend to do: proofreading, arts admin, bartending, librarian (big popular poet job at the moment).
i don't know where you, padcha, can find out more about the pedagogical issues other than that elephant book that you already read last semester. there are lots of exercise books for teaching creative writing. you could look at those. that sort of new age genre also, writing down the bone. etc. maybe that new daniel kane book would help: What Is Poetry: Conversations With the American Avant-Garde. perhaps you should write a book for us to read.
i was talking with jena, from whom i stole this workshop format, over the weekend. she was talking about how doing the processes, rather than the sort of generic do this and do that feedback, takes a certain higher level of generosity and that is the challenge of making it work finally. that to make it work you have to ask not what poem i would like better, but what am i doing as a reader. that the processes when they work are about interacting rather than rewriting.
on WALKS, i will probably go to barge walk on sunday unless i have to get bill from airport then. i would like to go to peralta house. and kristin, right?, is planning a black panther tour. the albany bowl is worth a walk.
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