The following workshops require the submission of writing samples by due date, and sent as specified in each case below. A list of students accepted in each of these courses will be posted in registration locations in Olin by 9:00 am on the morning of registration (Wednesday, Dec. 11th) as well as on relevant office doors.

This workshop is for students who strongly desire to experiment with making their own writing a means of learning, both about literature and poetry, and about the discipline of making works of art. Stress is on growth: in the student's own work, and in the individual's awareness of what sorts of activities, rhythms, and tellings are possible in poetry, and how poets go about learning from their own work. The central work of the course is the student's own writing, along with the articulation, both private and shared, of response to it. Readings will be undertaken in contemporary and traditional poets, according to the needs of the group, toward the development of familiarity with poetic form, poetic movement, and poetic energy. Attendance at various evening poetry readings and lectures is required. Candidates must submit samples of their work before registration with optional cover letter, via campus mail to Prof. Kelly by noon on Tuesday, December 3^rd.

Practice in imaginative writing. Students will present their own work for group response, analysis, and evaluation. Also reading of selected writers. Permission of the instructor is required. Candidates must submit samples of their work before registration, with optional cover letter, via campus mail to Prof. Sourian by noon on Tuesday, December 3^rd.

A workshop on the composition of short stories, for experienced writers. Students will also read short fiction by established writers, and devote significant time to the composition and revision of their own stories. Candidates must submit samples of their work before registration with cover letter, via campus mail to Prof. Caponegro by noon, Tuesday, December 3rd.

Among the many poetic practices identified by schools and genres is one that I like to call "Investigative." This is a poetry of extended projects and procedures designed to explore a range of forms, media, questions, logics, constraints....as well as experiences of our situation in today's world. Underlying assumptions are a) there are things one can know only in the form of poetry, b) a complex world must be engaged-at least some of the time-with complex forms of art. Though some of the projects for this course can involve visual and electronic media, as well as performance dimensions, the emphasis throughout will be on working with language. To bring students into a high level of consciousness about the forms and questions we're addressing, there will be weekly (brief but incisive) writing assignments in relation to our reading/viewing and in-class discussions. You will complete four extended poetic projects, each accompanied by a 3-5 page essay discussing your points of departure, your thinking along the way as you composed the piece, it's relation to the investigations of the class, the material processes you engaged in. There will be a number of poet visitors in conjunction with reading assignments. (Four volumes of poetry are required reading, along with a variety of handouts.) You will also be required to attend poetry readings and other events over the course of the semester.

In this course we will read poems by some of the poets included in the anthology, and comment on them. Weekly assignments will be given in relation to these readings. Some of these assignments will be in the form of a poem, some will be in the form of a critical prose response. Some will be in the form of a poem as a critical response, etc. For example, we might read the poems of Robert Frost, and we will take up the nature of the narration in poetry (as Frost conceived it). The assignment might be to write a narrative poem. We will also, of course, read and comment on your poems written independently of class assignments. The goal of this class is to help you understand the relation between subject and form in developing your poetics; to help you find a critical/analytical vocabulary; to help you discover ways to generate your own writing practice. The idea is that reading poems and critical works on poems are useful aids to writing them. (Note: If you took Part II in the fall, you can take Part I in the spring.) Submission of poetic and/or critical work should be sent to Prof. Lauterbach via campus mail.

A course designed for juniors and seniors, preference to seniors, who are not writing majors, but who might wish to see what they can learn about the world through the act of writing. Every craft, science, skill, discipline can be articulated, and anybody who can do real work in science or scholarship or art can learn to write, as they say, "creatively"--that is, learn how to make what concerns them also interest other people by means of language. This course will give not more than a dozen students the chance to experiment with all kinds of writing. Poetry is the name of an activity, and that activity will sometimes produce objects called poems and sometimes other sorts of texts. Towards all resultant texts our attention will turn. This is not a course in self-expression, but in making new things. No portfolio is required but prospective students must consult with Prof. Kelly prior to registration.