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WORD WORKS PROGRAMS are continually evolving trying
to serve both the interests of our audiences and volunteers.
In this section, you will find:
WORD WORKS ELECTRONIC NEWS GROUP
(COMING EVENTS)
Keep up to date on The Word Works news and Washington,
DC area events by subscribing to our email list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WordWorks_News/.
Our email list is strictly confidential and we promise to
never give your address to outside parties or marketers.
Beltway Electronic Magazine posts a poetry news and calendar
page for the Washington, DC area at http://washingtonart.com/beltway/ponews.html.
It is maintained by Kim Roberts. If you have events to list
on this calendar, send your information to: beltway.poetry@juno.com.
IN THE WORKS WORKSHOPS
In 2005, The Word Works in collaboration
with Grace Episcopal Church of Georgetown, DC, sponsored
Poetry On Stage, the first offering in the In The Works
Workshop series.
Karren Alenier presented a taste of the
oral tradition from medieval bards to modern blues, jazz,
and rap through the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Sterling Brown,
Langston Hughes, and others. The eight-week course included
writing new work and practicing effective delivery on stage.
Grace Church is located at 1041 Wisconsin
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Click here for current workshops.
WORKSHOPS
In 1999 and 2000, The Word Works presented the first
Master Class Poetry Workshops as part of our 25th anniversary
celebration.
General Information about the Master Class Series:
Specifics about Master Class Workshops and Leaders:
About the Master Class Format
The Word Works Master Class Workshop annually presents
an opportunity for twelve writers to compete for the privilege
of working with a nationally recognized poet and teacher.
The Workshop takes place on a weekend, usually 9:30 am to
1 pm, Saturday and Sunday. Dates, cost, and location will
be announced when the workshop is confirmed. Observers are
invited for a small fee ($20 advance reservations or $25
at the door) to attended and hear the proceedings of the
workshop. Observers are also given a chance to ask questions
at the conclusion of the workshop each day. A 30 minute
period is set aside for this purpose. People who apply to
the workshop are given first priority for audience seating
if they are not selected for the workshop.
About the Selection Process
A Word Works panel reads all manuscripts without benefit
of identifying information. Applicants are encouraged to
send their best work. Any type of poetry is eligible.
Selected participants have an opportunity to submit other
work for the actual workshop. The Word Works will return
checks to those people not selected for the workshop.
The Application Process
The 2002 Workshop has been announced. Applicants must submitt
the following items:
- 5 pages of poetry without the applicant's name
appearing on the manuscript pages.
- Cover sheet with name, address, phone numbers, email
address, title of poems submitted.
(As a backup plan, each applicant is asked,
in the event that he or she is not selected, to indicate
on the cover sheet whether he or she would like a priority
place held in audience seating. If so indicated, and
the applicant is not selected, his or her name will
be held at the door and a place saved for him or her
in the audience until 15 minutes before the workshop
commences.)
- Check for $145 made payable to The Word Works.
(Fees collected pay for the workshop leaders honorarium
and expenses as well as administrative and hospitality
table costs incurred. Without the generosity of our collaborators,
the Master Class Series would not be possible.)
(to be returned if application is not accepted)
- Business-sized self-addressed stamped envelope.
- Mail to:
The Word Works Master Class Workshop
PO Box 42164
Washington, DC 20015
- Deadline: February 20, 2002.
Reserve a Seat as an Observer
To reserve a seat in the audience, send a check made payable
to The Word Works for $20.
Mail to:
The Word Works Master Class Workshop
PO Box 42164
Washington, DC 20015
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The workshop "To Be Teased Into Forms:
Canzone, Ghazal, and Sapphic" took place at:
The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda,
Maryland
on Saturday, December 4 and Sunday, December 5, 1999.
About Agha Shahid Ali
Agha Shahid Ali, a Kashmiri-American poet, is author of
THE HALF-INCH HIMALAYAS, A WALK THROUGH THE YELLOW PAGES, A NOSTALGIST'S MAP AMERICA POEMS, and the
most recent collection, THE COUNTRY WITHOUT A POST OFFICE, published
by W.W. Norton & Company. This year he leaves his position
as Director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at
the University of Massachusetts--Amherst for a senior faculty
position in the Ph.d. literary arts program at the University
of Utah. He has taught at the University of Delhi, the Pennsylvania
State University, the University of Arizona and Hamilton
College. He has given readings in the Washington, DC area
at the Library of Congress and the Word Works Joaquin Miller
Cabin Poetry Series. Agha Shahid Ali’s books may be
purchased from Amazon.com or the Writer’s Center pending
availability.
On December 8, 2001, Agha Shahid Ali died. We pay tribute
to a masterful poet and teacher and mourn the loss of a
generous friend.
Notes on the Ghaza, Sapphic, Canzone
What is a
ghazal?
Sapphic. This Greek form consists of four-line stanzas
with a stressed syllable beginning every line. The first
three lines consists of 11 syllables that are two trochees,
a dactyl, and two additional trochees. The fourth line,
called an adonic, consists of one dactyl followed by one
trochee. Variations include use of a spondee instead of
a trochee. (A trochee consists of one stressed syllable
and one unstressed syllable. For example, money. A dactyl
consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables. For example, merriment.) William Meredith wrote
a sapphic entitled "Effort at Speech."
Canzone. This Renaissance Provencal and Italian form may
be of various lengths and patterms. Often it contains five
twelve-line stanzas with a final-five line stanza. Usually
there are five repeated words that serve alternately as
the last word of a line. Marilyn Hacker wrote a poem in
this form and titled it "Canzone."
For more information about these forms and others, consult
Strong
Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms
edited by Philip Dacey and David Jauss and Rhyme's
Reason: A Guide to English Verse by John Hollander.
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The workshop "Every Word Counts"
took place in cooperation with the Arlington County Cultural
Affairs Division and was held at:
National Rural Electric Cooperation Building (NRECA)
4301 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia
on Saturday, January 22 and Sunday, January 23, 2000.
About Thomas Lux
Thomas Lux is the author of SUNDAY, HALF PROMISED LAND, THE DROWNED RIVER, SPLIT HORIZON, and his most recent title
NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1975-1995. He
won the prestigious Kinglsey Tufts Poetry Award in 1995.
A member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence college
and a core faculty member of the Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program
for Writers, he divides his time between New York City and
the Boston area. Thomas Lux’s books may be purchased
from Amazon.com and some Washington, DC bookstores, such
as Trover Books and Chapters Literary Bookstore. To read
an interview with Tom Lux, see the Cortland Review, July
Issue at
http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/8/lux8i.htm.
Editing Tips from Thomas Lux
--Ask yourself if your title engages the reader's attention
and captures his or her imagination.
--Be consistent in use of punctuation. Eccentric punctuation
is OK if you are consistent.
--Do not use lower case i. It brands you as an amateur.
--Be wary of over used words and be as specific as you
can. Make a list of over used words, e.g. dream, dark,
love, hope, myriad.
--What is the best line of your poem? Make every other
line meet that standard.
--Get rid of dead words like have, the, etc.
Avoid passive tense.
--Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly.
--Use multi-syllabic words sparingly.
--Avoid use of S alliterations.
--Avoid "I remember" and "I dream."
--Keep in mind that a poet lies to tell the truth.
What really happened doesn't matter.
--Anchor to reality and then go out on the limb.
--Pay attention to your line breaks.
--Pay attention to stressed versus unstressed syllables,
particularly at the end of the line. A stressed syllable
at the end of the line is stronger than the unstressed syllable.
Use it to put emphasis at the end of the line.
--Obscurity is rude and shows the writer's arrogance if
not handled appropriately. If the word is absolutely correct,
then use it. Otherwise find a simpler expression.
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The workshop "Writing Research-Based Poems"
focused on how to write interconnected poems based on personal
or historical research. It took place in cooperation with
the Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division at:
National Rural Electric Cooperation Building (NRECA)
4301 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia
on Saturday, March 31 and Sunday, April 1, 2001
About Marilyn Nelson
Marilyn Nelson is the author of The
Home Place, Magnificat,
Mama's
Promises, and, most recently, The
Fields of Praise: New & Selected Poems. The Homeplace
(L.S.U. Press) was a finalist for the 1991 National Book
Award and won the 1992 Annisfield-Wolf Award. The Fields
of Praise was a finalist for the 1997 National Book
Award, the Lenore Marshal Prize, and the PEN Winship Award,
and it won the 1998 Poets' Prize. Her new book Carver
will be published in 2001. She teaches at the University
of Connecticut. To read more about her and her poetry visit
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=98.
Notes from Marilyn Nelson's Workshop
--Research-based poems are a set of related poems, usually
written around a single subject.
--Research-based poems are an alternative to confessional
poems.
--Strive for grammatically correct language or if you break
the rules, know what the rules are and be consistent.
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"Writing Out Loud" took place
in cooperation with the Arlington County Cultural Affairs
Division at:
National Rural Electric Cooperation Building (NRECA)
4301 Wilson Boulevard, Conference Room 3
Arlington, Virginia
on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7, 2002
About Grace Cavalieri
Grace Cavalieri is the author of eleven volumes of poetry,
including Pinecrest Rest Haven which was produced as a play
in New York City in the spring of 2001. She has written
texts and lyrics for opera, stage, and film. Producer/host
of NPR¹s "The Poet and the Poem" weekly from 1977 to 1997,
presenting 2000 poets to the nation, she now produces the
series annually from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite.
The recipient of awards that include the PEN Fiction Award,
The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, and the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting Silver Medal as well as others which
honor her ³significant contribution to poetry² and distinguish
her as an exceptional woman, she is part of the poetry faculty
at St. Mary¹s College of Southern Maryland and teaches workshops
nationwide and in Italy with the Word Works Arts Retreat
in Tuscany. She and her husband, sculptor Kenneth Flynn,
live in West Virginia. They have four grown daughters. To
read more about her and her poetry visit http://www.poetrymagazine.com/archives/2001/March01/cavalieri.htm
and http://www.washingtonart.com/beltway/cavalieri.html.
"Quilting the Sun: The Story of Harreit Powers (1837-1911),"
a new play by Grace Cavalieri, had a staged reading March
15, 2002 at Wings Theatre, 154 Chrisptopher Street, New
York City.
Notes from Grace Cavalieri's Workshop
---Read at least one poem by a contemporary poet every
night.
---Write a poem every morning.
---Points in Space Exercise:
Make a list of 10 interesting words.
Use these 10 words to write a poem.
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