Revising and Polishing Your Poems
4 Weeks • with Gail Thomas • Some Experience Prefered
Available spots
Class Description
For most poets revision can be daunting, and yet it is the most important step toward creating work that resonates with readers. If you aren’t receiving regular feedback, this workshop will provide tools for discovering what your poems need. We will explore issues of craft including beginnings and endings, tension, line breaks, form, and diction. Each session will focus on giving and receiving feedback on poems that you want to improve in an atmosphere of respect. Before each session, students will send one poem for feedback, will work on suggested revisions between sessions, and complete 3-4 poems. Revision exercises will be given each week to use for future work. This workshop is geared toward beginners and advanced beginners. Limited to 10 writers. Pre-Class Assignment: Please email one poem you would like to receive feedback on (and consequently revise) to Gail at gthomas2550@gmail.com upon registration, and at least one week before the date the class is scheduled to begin. This poem will be shared with and discussed by the group in the first workshop. Pre-class reading will include one poem from each person. WEEK ONE: CHECKLISTS & GUIDELINE We will review a checklist of strategies to use when revising to make poems more clear and powerful. The workshop model we will use to give and receive constructive feedback will be explained and demonstrated with the reading of one poem from each participant. WEEK TWO: Weeding Out, Going Deeper, Titles We will learn effective strategies for making poems tighter and more complex, as well as examine the work of titles. Sample poems by diverse writers will be used to illustrate. WEEK THREE: Inner critic, line breaks, line length, use of white space We will discuss the importance of identifying your inner critic. Sample poems by diverse writers will be used to illustrate the use of line breaks, line length and white space. WEEK FOUR: Developing Discernment We will discuss how to know when a poem is finished and strategies for developing discernment. We will have a final reading in which participants will share one poem that they have worked on revising during the workshop. INSTRUCTOR GAIL THOMAS is the author of six books of poetry. Individual poems have been published widely in literary magazines such as The North American Review, CALYX, and Valparaiso, and she has won numerous awards. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and Ucross, and several poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Upcoming Sessions
Cancellation Policy
If you withdraw from a workshop TEN DAYS OR MORE before the start of the class: You'll receive credit toward another workshop (minus 10% transaction fee) OR a full refund (minus 10% transaction fee). The transaction fee is non-refundable for PVWW, so this is something we must apply to all refunds and transfers. If you withdraw from a workshop nine days before the start of the class up until 48 hours before: You'll receive a refund minus 20%. If you withdraw from a workshop less than 48 hours before the start of a class or after the class has begun: We cannot offer credit or any refund. If you are absent on the day of your workshop or miss it for any reason, we are unable to offer any kind of refund or credit. If we have to cancel a class you have paid for, you will receive a full refund, without the service charge deducted. For our full listing of policies, visit www.PioneerValleyWriters.Com, Policies page (under Home). To withdraw and receive a partial refund according to the above, please get in touch with us at admin@pioneervalleywriters.com
Contact Details
joy@pioneervalleywriters.org