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Meet THe Team
Poetry is an ancient art form dating back to some of our most ancient civilizations. In ancient Greece, poetic epics weren’t just read, they were performed to huge crowds in banquet halls and set to music. There is a kind of magic that connects everything to poetry. All this is to say: you already know more about poetry than you might think. By looking at poetry through the lens of other types of art you might find more familiar, we can get at what all art has in common, and what makes poetry unique. You are already a poet; this class will just help you learn how to harness it.
In each session of this four-week course, we will explore poetry through the lens of a different art form (drama, storytelling, visual art, and music). We’ll use these frameworks to sift through poems of contemporary writers such as Matthew Olzmann, Layli Long Soldier, and Courtney Lamar Charleston for “non-poetic” techniques that make their writing more vibrant. Then, we’ll try our hands at these techniques in our own poetry through in-class generative writing and revision prompts.
• In-Class Writing Lift: Medium
• Homework: Optional
• Workshopping Drafts: Optional
Ryan Varadi is a midwestern poet currently living in Chicago, where he writes on the train on the way to work his retail job. He holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of North Carolina, where he received the Bernice Kert Teaching Fellowship. He has served as editorial staff for Ecotone and Chautauqua and as an intern for RHINO Poetry. His work appears or is forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, The Shore, and Collision Literary Magazine, among others. You can find updates at his sporadically updated website: ryanvaradi.com
Ryan is new to The Porch. Welcome!
