Course profiled by Lydia Johnson, a third-year MFA student in Poetry. 

Can you give a quick overview of what the course is and what it aims to do?

The course was for students with a significant body of poetry, mainly students about to enter into their thesis year. Through close study of nationally award winning books of poetry, workshops/writing, discussions and a ton of revisions we were able to create a collection of our poetry that represents our best work.

Why did you decide to take Alessandra’s class?

I’m starting my thesis in August and it seemed like a class I’d be able to apply in a practical way to the work I do in the next year. I didn’t want to go blindly into my second semester of thesis work next year with a crate of poems and no earthly idea of how they’d work together in a collection.

What does an average session look like?

We read three books in class, Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced by Catherine Barnett, Wind in a Box by Terrance Hayes and Slow Lightning by Eduardo Corral. We’d usually start class by talking about our discoveries within one of those books, some technique or element of structure that gave the book power or illuminated the larger theme. Then we’d do a few writing prompts that allowed us to go deeper into a chosen poem of ours or to tap into material that we felt was missing from our manuscript. Sometimes we did a creative project before or after the writing prompt like making sculptures or art from various objects that represented our work. That comprehensive approach to writing and inspiration is something that I’ve come to expect in a class taught by Alessandra Lynch. It really helps to make me think in a different way that opens up my writing. Toward the end of class we’d do group workshops of revisions or one-on-one discussions of a preferred poem.

What has been the best day of the class so far?

The best day of the class was when we had an opportunity to Skype with Terrance Hayes. I was a little star-struck, because I’m such a fan of his work, but he was very easy going and approachable. We’d read his book in class and asked him questions about his writing process and his choices in structuring the book. Hearing his reasoning about the decisions he made to order the poems gave me a deeper understanding of theme and arcs in narrative and emotional tenor. We talked a lot about the impact of outside influences and obsessions, which can become really apparent when you’re going through a body of work. It was clear that his writing is a distillation of many sources and poetry is one way that he’s able to express himself. He’s a visual artist as well. His perspective showed me that arranging poems in a manuscript isn’t a random process and that sometimes structure drives content or vice versa. One of the most memorable things he said in the discussion was that structuring a manuscript is like playing Scrabble. The building blocks are the poems you already have and shuffling them around to make new combinations is the best way to approach revision and the heart of the project.

Course profiled by Lydia Johnson, a third-year MFA student in Poetry. 

Can you give a quick overview of what the course is and what it aims to do?

The course was for students with a significant body of poetry, mainly students about to enter into their thesis year. Through close study of nationally award winning books of poetry, workshops/writing, discussions and a ton of revisions we were able to create a collection of our poetry that represents our best work.

Why did you decide to take Alessandra’s class?

I’m starting my thesis in August and it seemed like a class I’d be able to apply in a practical way to the work I do in the next year. I didn’t want to go blindly into my second semester of thesis work next year with a crate of poems and no earthly idea of how they’d work together in a collection.

What does an average session look like?

We read three books in class, Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced by Catherine Barnett, Wind in a Box by Terrance Hayes and Slow Lightning by Eduardo Corral. We’d usually start class by talking about our discoveries within one of those books, some technique or element of structure that gave the book power or illuminated the larger theme. Then we’d do a few writing prompts that allowed us to go deeper into a chosen poem of ours or to tap into material that we felt was missing from our manuscript. Sometimes we did a creative project before or after the writing prompt like making sculptures or art from various objects that represented our work. That comprehensive approach to writing and inspiration is something that I’ve come to expect in a class taught by Alessandra Lynch. It really helps to make me think in a different way that opens up my writing. Toward the end of class we’d do group workshops of revisions or one-on-one discussions of a preferred poem.

What has been the best day of the class so far?

The best day of the class was when we had an opportunity to Skype with Terrance Hayes. I was a little star-struck, because I’m such a fan of his work, but he was very easy going and approachable. We’d read his book in class and asked him questions about his writing process and his choices in structuring the book. Hearing his reasoning about the decisions he made to order the poems gave me a deeper understanding of theme and arcs in narrative and emotional tenor. We talked a lot about the impact of outside influences and obsessions, which can become really apparent when you’re going through a body of work. It was clear that his writing is a distillation of many sources and poetry is one way that he’s able to express himself. He’s a visual artist as well. His perspective showed me that arranging poems in a manuscript isn’t a random process and that sometimes structure drives content or vice versa. One of the most memorable things he said in the discussion was that structuring a manuscript is like playing Scrabble. The building blocks are the poems you already have and shuffling them around to make new combinations is the best way to approach revision and the heart of the project.