Kim Addonizio

writer musicmaker maquisard

Kim Addonizio is the author of six poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry, The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. She has received fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation, two Pushcart Prizes, and was a National Book Award Finalist for her collection Tell Me. Her latest books are Mortal Trash: Poems (W.W. Norton) and a memoir-in-essays, Bukowski in a Sundress (Penguin). She recently collaborated on a chapbook, The Night Could Go in Either Direction (Slapering Hol Press) with poet Brittany Perham. Addonizio also has two word/music CDs:  Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing (with Susan Browne) and My Black Angel, a companion to My Black Angel: Blues Poems & Portraits, featuring woodcuts by Charles D. Jones. She teaches and performs internationally

All the poems of our lives are not yet made.We hear them crying to us, the wounds, the young and the unborn — we will define that peace, we will live to fight its birth, to build these meanings, to sing these songs.

-Muriel Rykeyser, The Life of Poetry

STEAL LIKE A WRITER

(Craft/Generative class)--open to everyone

Live on Zoom MARCH 3-7 9:30-noon Pacific Time

Monday through Friday, 5 days, $500

What makes a good poem—and how can you learn from someone else’s accomplishment? This is a generative workshop that will also help you explore craft. We'll take inspiration from other writers—from their language, ideas, sentence structure, and strategies—whatever will launch us into new and self-surprising territory.  We'll play with words and sentences. We'll take a look at published work and do in-class writing to incorporate what we discover. Plan to bring a draft--or three! of failed or unrealized poems to conduct some in-class experiments. 

MAKE A BOOK: SHAPING YOUR POETRY MANUSCRIPT

Live on Zoom Saturday, March 8, 9-11am Pacific Time, $150

(We may stay a bit later, to make sure I answer everyone's questions)

Do you have a few handfuls of poems you’re hoping to turn into a chapbook or full-length collection? This lecture/conversation will guide you through how some authors have structured their own books of poems and give you some guidelines and ways to think about the themes and subjects of your work. We’ll also tackle subjects like readiness to publish, the value of “leaner and meaner” manuscripts, and submitting to contests vs. small press publishers. $150.

BOOks for Poets

FINGER EXERCISES FOR POETS, Dorianne Laux (W.W. Norton)

ORDINARY GENIUS: A GUIDE FOR THE POET WITHIN, Kim Addonizio  (W.W. Norton)

THE POET'S COMPANION: A GUIDE TO THE PLEASURES OF WRITING POETRY, Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux (W.W. Norton)

IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND: THE POET'S PORTABLE WORKSHOP, Steve Kowit (Tilbury House)

WHY POETRY, Matthew Zapruder (Ecco)

BEST WORDS, BEST ORDER, Stephen Dobyns (St. Martin's)

STRUCTURE AND SURPRISE :ENGAGING POETIC TURNS, ed. Michael Theune (Teachers & Writers)

POETIC METER & POETIC FORM, Paul Fussell (McGraw Hill)

TEXT BOOK: AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY LANGUAGE, Robert Scholes, Nancy Comley, Greg Ulmer er (St. Martin's


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