POETRY WORKSHOP

POETIC SELF-PORTRAITS: IT’S ALL ABOUT ME

Douglas Manuel

Do you ever get tired of writing about yourself? Are you looking for new ways to write about yourself? Do you take a lot of selfies? If you answered, yes, to any of these questions, then this workshop is for you. Welcome to poets who are just getting started, poets who are just trying to get back into the swing of things, or more established, publishing poets, this workshop will give you the opportunity to write about the thing about which many of us are the most obsessed, ourselves!

Beginning with famous self-portraits from the visual art world by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frida Kahlo, and Pablo Picasso, we will explore some of the motives and strategies of the self-portrait. After setting this visual foundation, each week we will then closely read and imitate the style and content of poems by Tiana Clark, Evie Shockley, Eduardo Corral, Dean Rader, Mary Szybist, John Ashbery, and others in hopes of generating new material and finding fresh new ways to render ourselves on the page.