Writing Towards the Unknown with Joanna Fuhrman: Six-Week Video Conference Workshop

Six Thursdays, October 15–November 19, 2020

Registration Deadline: MONDAY, October 12, 2020

In this time of uncertainty and isolation, this class will focus on writing exercises that encourage community and collaboration. The goal of each exercise will be to figure out ways to break habits of thinking and develop a playful approach to language and life. We will look at how poets can wrestle with profound and political issues in a way that keeps the work’s spirit and language from becoming a prisoner to dogma or cliché. We will be inspired by chat-box based writing games, film clips, art works, music and sound. We will also read poems by a wide range of contemporary poets including Jayne Cortez, francine j. harris, Elaine Equi, Mary Ruefle, Paul Violi, John Yau and others. In addition to generating new work, we will workshop student poems and discuss published work.

Joanna Fuhrman is the author of five books of poetry, including The Year of Yellow Butterflies (Hanging Loose Press, 2015) and Pageant (Alice James Books, 2009). Her sixth book, To a New Era, is forthcoming from Hanging Loose in 2021. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Believer, Conduit, Fence, New American Writing, and Volt, as well as in various anthologies, including The Pushcart Prize 2011 and 365 Poems for Every Occasion (Abrams, 2015). She also creates poetry videos and teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and Sarah Lawrence College’s Writers Village for teenagers.