Abstract:
Poetry is arguably more important than ever in a Twenty-First Century America where trust, truth and sustained attention have been eroded. In this workshop, we will slow down and examine the experiential and revisionary vitality of poetic diction, word by word. In doing so, we will explore how poets do not set out to tell a story. Rather, they – and we – travel into the unknown through each word on the page, embarking on a journey which is constantly changing course. Taking reading and writing poetry as a life-force and a life-skill in contemporary society, we will discuss examples of poetic diction by asking what kinds of stories they contain and evoke and how they refract and re-frame what a ‘story’ is. We will then experiment with methods for teaching the creative writing of poetry by starting with the stories of a single word.
Bio:
Dr. Lucy Cheseldine is a postdoctoral researcher in Twenty-First Century American poetry. She completed her PhD at the University of Leeds in 2022 and has previously studied and taught Literature in Glasgow, Alabama, Dublin, Tokyo, and York. Her scholarship on the poetry and textual practice of American poet Donald Hall and his contemporaries has been published in numerous scholarly journals. Lucy is a practicing poet and writes regularly for poetry magazines in the UK. She is passionate about outreach and engaging people with poetry; she has taught students across all age ranges and has supported the organisation of public poetry projects including The New York City Poetry Festival. Alongside her research, Lucy advocates for a more inclusive and collaborative research culture in academia and beyond.