This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House
The Art of Distance in Poetry
The poet and reader, the poet and speaker, and the poet and the subject of the poem are always in implicit conversation. The distance between them creates a specific effect on the poem. Mastery over the poem is also a mastery over the understanding of the way distance and time manifest themselves in the poem. In this workshop, we will identify how each of our poems play with distance and time and explore further ways to manipulate time for emotional effect.
We will discuss topics such as the ethical implications of persona writing, the poet’s closeness to the topic they are writing about, the emotional effect of time jumps in poetry, along with many others. Poets we will discuss include Terrance Hayes, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Roger Reeves, June Jordan, Joy Priest, Evie Shockley, K, Iver, Marie Howe, Solmaz Sharif, Layli Long Soldier, John Berryman, and many more.
About the Instructor
JOSHUA BURTON is a poet and educator from Houston, TX and author of the poetry collection Grace Engine (University of Wisconsin Press), as well as the chapbook Fracture Anthology (Ethel). He received his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. He is a 2019 Tin House Winter Workshop Scholar, 2019 Juniper Summer Writing Institute scholarship winner, 2019 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics fellowship finalist, received the Honorable Mention for the 2018 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize, 2020 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing finalist, and a 2023 Elizabeth George Foundation grant recipient. His work can be found in Mississippi Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Conduit, TriQuarterly, Black Warrior Review, Grist, and Indiana Review.
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