Speech, Speed and Structures of Voicing in Poetry and Prose

Instructor: Anselm Berrigan

Date: Saturday 18 September 2010, from 1pm to 5pm.

Course Description: Among the questions taken up in this discussion will be how to map and/or sense the interrelations of material, voice, and structure while writing, editing, and reading. Material at the level of the syllable sound, voice as phenomenon of generating and arranging material, and structure referring to both the continuous structure of the work in progress and performance as well as the structure of the “finished” piece. Participants who sign up will be sent two longer unpublished poems by Berrigan, as well as a small set of suggested readings, to consider ahead of the class. Students are also asked to bring a few pages of their own work to the workshop for consideration and usage in relation to the handouts. Discussion will be propelled toward the development of longer works by participants (with “longer” meaning anywhere from 2 – 200 or more pages, depending on one’s experience and practice), with a particular focus on the question of how speed – within the acts of writing, reading, processing, editing, thinking – functions on several levels within any individual’s practice. Must speed necessarily be fast?

This unique opportunity to work with New York poet and teacher Anselm Berrigan is being made available to 10 students only.

Fee: $150.00