Category Archives: classes

news & a workshop

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Poemeleon has a wonderful series of interviews by Cati Porter called “The Habitual Poet” about reading and writing poetry which includes poets Diane Lockward, Jeannine Hall Gailey, and Martha Silano. I’m up as installment #54 “The Habitual Poet: Laura Madeline Wiseman.” Yeah!

I also have a poem in Labletter and this Saturday I’m off to Fargo, North Dakota to give a reading at 3:15 p.m. on March 26 of poetry at Red River Graduate Student Conference at the Memorial Union at  North Dakota State University. I’ll be reading from my dissertation on Matilda Fletcher and maybe a few poems from Branding Girls. I hope to see you there!

And I must say a few words about the wonderful master workshop I took with Alicia Ostriker during the last two weeks. I haven’t taken a workshop in a couple of years. It was so nice to get feedback on brand new poems from Alicia and from the newer poets in the program and to read their exciting work. Alicia gave us five assignments and we were to write a fresh poem based on the assignment, sometimes as quickly as overnight! It felt a little bit like poetry boot-camp and required a bit of mettle and diligence, but such a nice way to stretch into new styles and themes and reread old favorite poets like Whitman, Ginsberg, Oliver, Sexton, Grahn, Karr, Levertov, Dickinson, H.D., and Clifton. It was so good to learn from Alicia, to hear her candor, generosity, and insight.

Here was the first assignment (if you’re up for it):

1) write a poem emulating the Wang Wei poem below: 8 lines max, each line containing at least one verb, one or more containing two verbs, the final line containing three verbs. The poem is centered on a place. It will have no more than one adjective.

Villa on Zhongnan Mountain,” by Wang Wei

 

In my middle years I came to much love the Way
and late made my home by South Mountain’s edge.

 

When the mood comes upon me, I go off alone,
and have glorious moments all to myself.

 

I walk to the point where a stream ends,
and sitting, watch when the clouds rise.

By chance I meet old men in the woods;
we laugh and chat, no fixed time to turn home.

 

Wang Wei’s “Villa on Zhongnan Mountain” from An Anthology of Chinese Literature, Stephen Owen, ed. and trans. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996) p. 390.

Sprung’s first blurb

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I’ve just received my first blurb from Grace Bauer for Sprung, forthcoming from San Fransisco Bay Press next year. Grace is an amazing poet and teacher. The first poetry workshop I took at UNL was with Grace. For her class, rather than read a dozen or so poetry collections, she asked the students to read current issues of poetry journals, such as The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Fence, and Poetry, and write responses to the journal’s aesthetic. In class we would workshop poems and discuss the journal. The issue of Poetry I chose happened to be an issue that focused on humor. The following class, Grace also brought in an essay that discussed the use of humor by poets such as Denise Duhamel. I remember being fascinated, in part because I hadn’t really considered poetry as something that was funny or could be funny. Up to that point, I’d only brought serious poems to be workshopped.

Grace is the author of several chapbooks and two books, Beholding Eye and Retreats and Recognitions. Her books are wonderful, surprising, and indeed, humorous. She was also the editor for Prairie Schooner‘s baby-boomer issue. Her introduction is a must read. She’s a hoot at poetry readings. At the first reading I attended of hers, she wore a lapel pin crafted out of an old dial to a dishwasher (I think). I’ve just ordered her edited collection, Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum.

Here’s Grace on Sprung:

The series of poems that comprise Laura Madeline Wiseman’s Sprung feature an unlikely antagonist. Alter ego? Animus? Evil twin? Master manipulator? Muse? Imaginary friend? Or foe? Wiseman is a smart woman, a gutsy poet who seduces the reader with possibilities in this delightfully disturbing collection.

Thanks, Grace.

News for a new semester

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I’m super excited because The Sow’s Ear Review and Illya’s Honey have accepted poems of mine for their forthcoming issue. I love it when my poems find homes.

Second, I received my contributor’s copy of the current issue of Eclipse, which includes a great piece by Judith Slater, also a member of the UNL community. My piece, “Hypotheses (or In the Lake of the Woods) is a poem I wrote in response to the Tim O’Brien novel, a book I taught in one of my composition and rhetoric classes. The poem also appears in my poetry collection Ghost Girl. In 2008, Tim O’Brien was the writer-in-residence here. I was lucky enough to take his master workshop. It was an unforgettable experience.

Third, my contributor’s copy of the anthology hell strung and crooked from Unhook Press has also just arrived. Yeah! It includes  a great interview with Mark Doty. Speaking of the poet, I’ve read a few of his books, but my current favorite is his memoir Dog Years. It’s a wonderful book. One of the best memoirs I read last winter.

And finally, today is the first day of a new semester. I’m teaching a composition class and a poetry class. The latter is my favorite class to teach because it combines women’s studies, women’s literature, and creative writing into a class called English 253A: poetry writing: Women’s Poetry. Along with a few short essays, this term I’m teaching Anne Sexton’s Transformations, Louise Gluck’s Averno, Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia, Carole Oles’ Waking Stone, Denise Duhamel’s Kinky and Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux’s edited text The Poet’s Companion. It’s going to be an amazing class. I’m so excited!

saints, witches, madwomen

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I’m taking a super cool course for the pre-session, Saints, Witches, Madwomen. So far the readings are very good. And it’s nice to reread some of the texts I’ve read in other courses or in other contexts.

Brown, Immodest Acts
Buccola, Conjuring
Freud, Dora
Gilman, The Yellow Wall Paper
Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Sharpe, Witchcraft in Early Modern England
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Shaw, Saint Joan
Wilson, Medieval Women Writers

I mention the class here because: 1) the professor Carole Levin is a wonderful teacher; 2) she’s a prolific author: 3) she’s c0-curated the current exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library, “To Sleep Perchance to Dream.” When I visited DC a year or so ago, I did get a chance to explore the library led by a docent. Too cool. But more cool, is the current exhibit has a virtual tour online with audio, images, and texts. You can even hear my teacher explain certain aspects of the exhibit.