Jennifer Richter

Instructor

Oregon State University
Moreland 204D
2550 SW Jefferson Way
Corvallis, OR 97331 USA
Tel: 541-737-1341
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Course Information

ENG 570 Studies in Poetry

Available Spring Term

The Prose Poem: Thinking Inside the Box
In this course we’ll examine the form called “a veritable literary hybrid” by Charles Simic, the only poet to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a collection of prose poetry (famously, in 1990, for The World Doesn’t End).

To get a sense of the prose poem’s history and the many voices writing in this genre, we’ll read selections from Great American Prose Poems and The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry. We’ll also study four full-length books of prose poetry by Holly Iglesias, Eula Biss, David Keplinger, and Gary Young, a poet now publishing exclusively in this form who explains, “What I wanted from my poetry [was] a horizontal rather than a vertical structure, a poem that one might walk along rather than fall through.”

Part of our focus when reading will be to note how the prose poem can accommodate almost any subject, from the comic, pleasurable, or absurd to the difficult, heartbreaking, or seemingly inexplicable. Working within this form, writers sometimes loosen up and break out of their usual habits; through in- and out-of-class writing assignments, students will be challenged to do the same.

WR 541 Advanced Poetry Writing

Available Spring Term

Obsessions
“It doesn’t bother me that the word ‘stone’ appears more than thirty times in my third book, or that ‘wind’ and ‘gray’ appear over and over in my poems to the disdain of some reviewers. If I didn’t use them that often I’d be lying about my feelings, and I consider that unforgivable. In fact most poets write the same poem over and over. Wallace Stevens was honest enough not to try to hide it. Frost’s statement that he tried to make every poem as different as possible from the last one is a way of saying that he knew it couldn’t be.

“So you are after those words you can own and ways of putting them in phrases and lines that are yours by right of obsessive musical deed…. Your words used your way will generate your meanings. Your obsessions lead you to your vocabulary.”

—Richard Hugo, “The Triggering Town”

This term, we’ll examine the obsessions that drive a poet’s work. We’ll read three contemporary collections (all 2^nd books, coincidentally) that, either structurally or thematically, are obsessed with certain images (the Biblical Annunciation and related male/female power plays), with a particular form (every poem composed of exactly 100 words), or with personal experiences (the suicide of the poet's brother).

I’ll introduce you to two of the many tremendous poets who live and write here in the Pacific Northwest: Mary Szybist and Matthew Dickman. In the coming weeks, you’ll have the opportunity to speak with them about their obsessions and their work in general. I’ll also introduce you to Julie Green, Associate Professor of Art at OSU, whose (obsessive) project “The Last Supper” I hope you had a chance to see at The Arts Center.

In our ten weeks together, we’ll work to identify some of your own poetic obsessions and we’ll workshop some of that obsession-fueled work. In practical terms, those obsessions can act as the backbone that supports and links your theses and subsequent collections.

Admission to WR 541 requires graduate standing and acceptance into the MFA program or instructor approval.

School of Writing, Literature, and Film

Programs