A Typical Week

As this is a workshop, our main concern is writing and critiquing poems-in-progress. We will, of course, supplement that work by considering published poems and talking about poetics in general.

Here's how a typical week will go:

Monday: Individual Conferences / Receive Critique Packet
Tuesday: Individual Conferences
Wednesday: Critique
Thursday: Critique
Friday: King for a Day / Conference Drafts Due

Critique drafts must arrive in my ASFA e-mail account [tjbeitelman(at)asfa.k12.al.us] by 8 p.m. on Sunday evenings. No exceptions.

A few other notes:

Sometimes on Mondays and/or Tuesdays we'll talk about published poems and/or craft issues.

"King for a Day" is a reference to Stephen King. He says the only -- only -- way to learn how to write is to write a lot and read widely. I don't know about "only," but I take his point. Most Fridays will be reserved for you to do one (1) of two (2) things: write or read.

You can read anything (within reason), provided it's a book. Fiction, poetry, nonfiction. Whatever.

You can write anything, provided it's creative writing. Note that doesn't mean it has to be in response to a creative writing assignment, though it can be if that's what you want to work on.

You can spend some of the time reading, some of the time writing, or all of the time doing just one of them. It's up to you.