24Pearlstreet Workshops
LIVE – SYNCHRONOUS
As a free verse poet, do you feel a bit…insecure…when it comes to meter, rhyme schemes, and that ubiquitous form known as the sonnet? This your chance to learn—or relearn—the rules, essence, and possibilities of this versatile and ever-evolving form. We’ll be starting from square one, exploring a bit of the history and practicing writing the almighty iambic pentameter with exercises to build your skills. We’ll be reading a lot of sonnets, on the page and aloud, to keep the rhythms in our heads. We’ll take a look at sonnets written from the margins of the Western European tradition, and consider how Black and women writers, especially, have made of this “scanty plot of ground” (Wordsworth) a site of resistance and liberation. By the end of our five-day intensive, you’ll have a solid appreciation and knowledge of the traditional sonnet. Going forward, you’ll also have a map of the sonnet’s evolution in contemporary practice. You’ll go away with at least the beginnings of a sonnet or two and lots of inspiration for more.
LIVE TIME: 10am-12pm (Pacific Time) – 1pm-3pm (Eastern Time) – daily.
Biography
Kim Addonizio is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose. Her most recent poetry collection is Now We’re Getting Somewhere (W.W. Norton). Her memoir-in-essays, Bukowski in a Sundress, was published by Penguin. She has received NEA and Guggenheim Fellowships, Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and the essay, and her poetry has been widely translated and anthologized. Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist in poetry. She lives in Oakland, CA.