Breaking Habits of Syntax with Donna Masini

What are your syntactic habits and how do they constrict or limit where your poems will take you? If you can say “my poems always/ never…” (ex. are in first person, start in present tense, use complete sentences, ask questions, etc.) this session is a chance to see what happens when you try something new. We’ll look at poems, experiment with various syntactic strategies, and explore ways to move out of the familiar and generate drafts of new poems. To help us think about syntax and revision, participants are encouraged to bring in a draft of a poem.

Donna Masini is the author of two collections of poetry–That Kind of Danger (1994), winner of the Barnard Women Poet’s Prize, and Turning to Fiction (2004) – and two novels. She lives in New York where she teaches in Hunter College’s MFA program.

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