Student Reading Series!
Below is an announcement from the Creative Writing Guild. I'd highly recommend submitting to this series. It will be fun, it's good experience, and apparently, you'll get paid!
Starting now until February 8th, the Creative Writing Guild of UWG will be accepting submissions for possible readers in our first Student Reader Series! The works will be judged by a panel of creative writing professors, who will then meet with the CWG officers to organize reading days and times! Please send us your best work!
Submission Guidelines:
Send submissions to CWGatUWG@gmail.com
Please send no more than 8-10 pages of prose or 3-4 poems.
Deadline: February 8th
Oh, and did I mention that thanks to some information discovered by the very awesome and talented Dr. Emily Hipchen, we will be able to offer our readers a small stipend for reading! So get out those typewriters, pens, notebooks, laptops, and all other manner of writing utensils, and send us your stuff!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Blog of the Week! Line of the Week!
I’m going to start recognizing blogs of the week and lines of the week (at least semi-regularly). While all of you are doing some amazing work, these two things stuck out to me this week. Congrats to our first stars of the week!
Jenna: Blog of the Week. The commentary on the WikiHow about writing haikus is hilarious. The reflection on the feeling all writers get at some point (“I wish I had written that poem”) is spot on. And the explanation of her own poem (and of her intentions for the poem) is a valuable exercise that I would recommend to everyone. Recognizing what you meant, what readers saw, and figuring out how to synthesize the two is an important part of this class.
LaRue: Line of the Week. In “What the Cosmos Left,” LaRue’s speaker discusses the stars she found in various places the way Howe’s speaker found scissors. This line captures a beautifully original moment (how many of us have found stars in our mouths?), using a wonderfully ordinary item (warm bread):
. . . and one night, in my mouth,
I tasted something like a warm bite of bread and pulled it out
to watch over me . . . .
Stay tuned for more highlights from the great body of work you’re all producing......
Jenna: Blog of the Week. The commentary on the WikiHow about writing haikus is hilarious. The reflection on the feeling all writers get at some point (“I wish I had written that poem”) is spot on. And the explanation of her own poem (and of her intentions for the poem) is a valuable exercise that I would recommend to everyone. Recognizing what you meant, what readers saw, and figuring out how to synthesize the two is an important part of this class.
LaRue: Line of the Week. In “What the Cosmos Left,” LaRue’s speaker discusses the stars she found in various places the way Howe’s speaker found scissors. This line captures a beautifully original moment (how many of us have found stars in our mouths?), using a wonderfully ordinary item (warm bread):
. . . and one night, in my mouth,
I tasted something like a warm bite of bread and pulled it out
to watch over me . . . .
Stay tuned for more highlights from the great body of work you’re all producing......
Class Sonnet
Parks’s Class Sonnet Exercise
The following poems are not revised and probably contain errors. At the very least, they contain some poor word choice and extra words. BUT, I thought I’d share what I did with the class exercise, since you guys always do such a nice job sharing your projects. Also, I think this sequence illustrates how different forms can change a poem.
1. The first poem in this post is exactly what my class sonnet said.
2. The next one is the sonnet I wrote using some of the material from the class sonnet.
3. The next one is a version that I like better. I think the line breaks and syllable count helped the poem. (All of the lines have 5 syllables — or should — except for the last line of each stanza, which has 4.)
4. The final one is the poem reduced to a haiku.
The Weather Down Here
Out in the park, back by the pond, ducks sit.
Children play in front of the calm water
splashing their mother with the cold debris.
In the humid weather of September
Something about Georgia weather is bipolar
Dry spells last forever then it suddenly snows
And and how should I remember our last time?
Should I remember the fighting, the arguing, the moment you left
I will never forget the things we said
Or the way we danced under the Christmas lights
As the mistletoe hung above our heads
and I kissed you, my lips bright red
Liking the way this evening was going
I think I’ll stay the night just this one time.
--------------------------------------
The Weather Down Here
In the park pond
children caterwaul at the edge of the calm water,
splashing their mother with the cold, with debris
in the humid air of October.
Something else about Georgia weather:
Dry spells last forever then suddenly, snow.
Like the fall when we couldn’t burn because
everything was too easy to burn.
Then snow.
A new crackling, a whiter debt.
Snow without reason, without warning.
The maps of weather can’t show
the tunneling that snow requires, the high price
of even a little heat.
---------------------------------------------
The Weather Down Here
The park pond: children
caterwaul at the
edge of calm water,
splashing their mother
with cold, with debris
in the humid air
of October.
Something else about
Georgia weather: Dry
spells last forever
then suddenly, snow.
Like the fall when we
couldn’t burn because
everything was too
easy to burn.
Then snow: new crackling,
a whiter debt.
Snow without reason,
without warning. Maps
of weather can’t show
the tunneling that
snow requires, the
high price of even
a little heat.
----------------------------------------------
The Weather Down Here
Snow without reason,
without warning. Weather maps
can’t show tunneling.
The following poems are not revised and probably contain errors. At the very least, they contain some poor word choice and extra words. BUT, I thought I’d share what I did with the class exercise, since you guys always do such a nice job sharing your projects. Also, I think this sequence illustrates how different forms can change a poem.
1. The first poem in this post is exactly what my class sonnet said.
2. The next one is the sonnet I wrote using some of the material from the class sonnet.
3. The next one is a version that I like better. I think the line breaks and syllable count helped the poem. (All of the lines have 5 syllables — or should — except for the last line of each stanza, which has 4.)
4. The final one is the poem reduced to a haiku.
The Weather Down Here
Out in the park, back by the pond, ducks sit.
Children play in front of the calm water
splashing their mother with the cold debris.
In the humid weather of September
Something about Georgia weather is bipolar
Dry spells last forever then it suddenly snows
And and how should I remember our last time?
Should I remember the fighting, the arguing, the moment you left
I will never forget the things we said
Or the way we danced under the Christmas lights
As the mistletoe hung above our heads
and I kissed you, my lips bright red
Liking the way this evening was going
I think I’ll stay the night just this one time.
--------------------------------------
The Weather Down Here
In the park pond
children caterwaul at the edge of the calm water,
splashing their mother with the cold, with debris
in the humid air of October.
Something else about Georgia weather:
Dry spells last forever then suddenly, snow.
Like the fall when we couldn’t burn because
everything was too easy to burn.
Then snow.
A new crackling, a whiter debt.
Snow without reason, without warning.
The maps of weather can’t show
the tunneling that snow requires, the high price
of even a little heat.
---------------------------------------------
The Weather Down Here
The park pond: children
caterwaul at the
edge of calm water,
splashing their mother
with cold, with debris
in the humid air
of October.
Something else about
Georgia weather: Dry
spells last forever
then suddenly, snow.
Like the fall when we
couldn’t burn because
everything was too
easy to burn.
Then snow: new crackling,
a whiter debt.
Snow without reason,
without warning. Maps
of weather can’t show
the tunneling that
snow requires, the
high price of even
a little heat.
----------------------------------------------
The Weather Down Here
Snow without reason,
without warning. Weather maps
can’t show tunneling.
