Teaching a poetry revision class at Open Books
In May 2018, I am teaching a four-part course on revision at Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Seattle. We're three weeks in already and I am having so much fun with my talented students! I wanted to share a little bit about this class (better late than never).
Here’s a description of the class:
“Revising Your Way to Better Poems: Strategies for Effective Revision” is a four-session course that combines workshop-style feedback sessions with prompts, activities, and strategies designed to help you revise your poetry. Each attendee will select one to two poems that will be revised over the course of the class, and learn revision techniques along the way that can be applied to a broad variety of poems. Whether you’re new to writing and don’t know how to begin revising, or you’re a seasoned poet looking for new strategies, this class is for you! Come prepared for quick prompts, dramatic rewrites, workshopping, and even a few revision games.
From the instructor, Erin L. McCoy:
“For years and years, I used to love writing poems but hate revising them. When it came to revision, I just felt I had no idea what I was doing, and sometimes I felt that I was just making poems worse. Many beginning and intermediate poets feel the same way, and choose to overvalue the sanctity of the first draft, since they feel they can’t make it better.In this class, we will joyfully cut first drafts to pieces, turn them upside down, shake and twist and scramble them. I’ll offer up the many strategies and techniques I learned as an MFA student at the University of Washington, working with a writing group, and attending a multitude of writing classes. We’ll look at revision as a multi-step process and try out structured, specific, and highly applicable approaches to revision. We’ll share our revisions along the way and learn from each other, as each person applies the tactics we learn in different ways. Students will walk away with up to two dramatically revised poems and strategies they can use again and again.”
Class schedule:
— Tuesday, May 1, 6:30–8:30 pm
— Tuesday, May 8, 6:30–8:30 pm
— Tuesday, May 15, 6:30–8:30 pm
— Tuesday, May 22, 6:30–8:30 pm
