Poetry-as-Process Spring Workshop with Jane Huffman (via Zoom)

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom and capped at 15 students. You will receive the link as soon as you register to the email you give us. Please read our course policies page before signing up for any class.

Students are invited to bring a poem of any kind, in any form, to class for a productive and friendly workshop conducted in the style of noted choreographer Liz Lerman’s “Critical Response Process.” It is a workshop model described by Lerman as “a method for giving and getting feedback on work in progress, designed to leave the maker eager and motivated to get back to work.” Diverting from traditional workshop methods that silence the artist and often leave all parties dissatisfied, in this workshop, each writer will actively and meaningfully participate in their session. We will begin by reviewing the Critical Response Process steps, examining each in detail: first, readers make “statements of meaning;” next, the poet asks readers questions about their work; then, readers ask “neutral questions” about the work, and the writer responds or chooses not to respond; last, readers offer their opinions, asking for permission from the writer to do so. Throughout the session, students and the instructor will work collaboratively to facilitate these steps. By practicing this kind of workshop, poets will not only gain useful and practical feedback they might apply to their writing and revision process but also experience the reader-writer relationship anew. Poets of all experience levels are welcome to attend this useful, community-oriented, and confidence-boosting workshop.

Prospective students can read more about Lerman and the Critical Response Process here: https://lizlerman.com/critical-response-process/

Jane Huffman’s debut collection, PUBLIC ABSTRACT, won the 2023 APR/Honickman First Book Prize, selected by Dana Levin. You can order the collection here. Jane is a doctoral student in poetry at the University of Denver and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is editor-in-chief of Guesthouse, an online literary journal. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Nation, and elsewhere. She was a 2019 recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.