This course will be both a reading and a writing workshop. Think of it, to use Charles Bernstein's phrase, as "a nontraditional poetry immersion laboratory." We will read widely in contemporary poetry, with an emphasis on the innovative forms of poetry that emerge in the 20th century. (We will look at and do some work in more traditional forms also; but more time will be spent on innovation, exploration, collaboration, dictation, improvisation, etc.) And we will spend a lot of time on the "how to" of writing poetry. We will write expansively in class. We will imitate various processes and procedures. We will workshop the products of this expansive writing. We will talk about how to bring what we've written in these moments into more crafted work. The class welcomes those both familiar and unfamiliar with contemporary poetry. It is my hope that the class will be useful for anyone wanting to explore new possibilities for writing, whether or not they have a commitment to writing poetry.

REQUIREMENTS:
· two short assignments a week-one some sort of creative work (might be a "Poem") and one response to the reading that is to be posted on the web
· three "projects," at least two of which should be chapbooks of some sort
· in class participation
· regular attendance