New 2024 Virtual Speaker Series, “I Learn by Going Where I Have to Go: Conversations with Writers about their Influences and Models”
On one of Theodore Roethke’s most well-known villanelles, “The Waking,” he repeats four times, with variations, “I learn by going where I have to go." We can all reflect on the work of writers who have been influences on our own writing and our lives, either in their general approaches to the craft or in specific poems.
In this series, four well-established poet teachers will share poems and stories from the writers who helped shape their craft and approaches to poetry, along with sharing their own poems where they see the influence of these models and mentors. Help us celebrate National Poetry Month 2024 by joining in these conversations. There will be time for questions and comments from participants before the session concludes. Sessions will meet each Tuesday in April from 7:00 to 8:00 PM ET.
Keep reading for a closer look at each of the sessions in this series.
Tuesday, April 2 – Anita Skeen
Anita Skeen will briefly discuss how she came to poetry and what poets she was drawn to in her early years, with a primary focus on the work of Margaret Atwood and Lisel Mueller—poets with whom she first had a professional and then personal relationship. Skeen will explore several specific poems of Atwood and Mueller while tracing that influence to poems of her own. There will be time for questions at the end of the session.
Tuesday, April 9 – Rick Mulkey
Coming to poetry originally from prose, Rick Mulkey will discuss what it was about the lyric form that drew him to poetry, specifically lyric description, musical matters, and how the isolated human gesture comprises the central concern of the lyric poem. He will discuss the works of several poets and examine their influence on his work, including poems by James Wright, Seamus Heaney, Linda Gregg, and Albert Goldbarth. Q/A will follow.
Tuesday, April 16 – Leila Chatti
Details coming soon!
Tuesday, April 23 – Guillermo Delgado
Details coming soon!
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