24Pearlstreet Workshops
Just think of how many dreams you have during any given week or month! Think of the imaginative energy that pours into, and emanates from, those images and stories. Think too of how that imaginative energy might be harnessed or otherwise brought to bear on new poems and in your writing process in general. In our four-week workshop we will examine and discuss how one might employ the energies of dreams in our poems. There will be craft-lectures on such topics as dream-images, dream-stories, nightmares, visions and visitations, and other elements that turn up in this vast and often unconscious terrain of mind. We will also read and discuss dream-related poems by a host of writers ranging from the ancient world to the present. There will be writing prompts based on our readings and discussions. Ultimately, however, the focus will be on the work you do, and the goal each week will be for you to write new poems that draw upon dreams. Together we will examine and discuss this new work in the hopes of revealing heretofore untapped imaginative and linguistic possibilities
Biography
Fred Marchant is the author of five books of poetry, the most recent of which is Said Not Said (Graywolf Press, 2017). Earlier books include Full Moon Boat, The Looking House, Tipping Point, and House on Water, House in Air. Marchant has co-translated work by several Vietnamese poets, and edited Another World Instead: The Early Poems of William Stafford. An emeritus professor of English, he is founding director of the Suffolk University Poetry Center in Boston.