Avant-Garde to the People with Xandria Phillips: Six-Week Video Conference Workshop

Six Wednesdays, October 14–November 25, (SKIP November 11)

Registration Deadline: MONDAY, October 12, 2020

Because drastic times call for drastic poetics this workshop is dedicated to the exploration of our most experimental written voices. This class gives students the opportunity to combine personal histories with avant-garde approaches to crafting language. Form and innovation will be at the forefront of this workshop as we read and discuss writers such as Marwa Helal, Tyehimba Jess, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Robin Coste Lewis. In Avant-Garde to the People we will discover ways that interdisciplinary practices can enhance and deepen experimental poetics.

Xandria Phillips is a writer, educator, and visual artist from rural Ohio. The recipient of the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging Writers, Xandria has received fellowships from Oberlin College, Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Their poetry has been featured in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Poets.org, Virginia Quarterly Review, and BOMB Magazine. Xandria’s poem, “For a Burial Free of Sharks” won the GIGANTIC Sequins Poetry Contest judged by Lucas de Lima. Xandria’s chapbook, Reasons for Smoking won the 2016 Seattle Review Chapbook Contest judged by Claudia Rankine. Their first book, HULL was published by Nightboat Books in 2019 and is the winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Trans Poetry.

Class Dates:
Wednesday, October 14, 6-8:30pm
Wednesday, October 21, 6-8:30pm
Wednesday, October 28, 6-8:30pm
Wednesday, November 4, 6-8:30pm
SKIP Wednesday, November 11, Veterans Day
Wednesday, November 18, 6-8:30pm
Wednesday, November 25, 6-8:30pm