Poetry and Art: Writing About the Past and the Present with Ruben Quesada (via Zoom)

Ekphrasis is a poetic term meaning “description” in Greek. It is the ancient and modern practice of writing poetry to describe and respond to artwork. New ekphrasis is a more inclusive term to expand upon the idea of artwork, to include digital media, e.g., text, audio, video, and graphics.

This course explores how visual culture and literature can speak to each other. It becomes increasingly important to communicate in writing effectively in a growing visual age. Through practice, clarity of narrative, and description, students can express ideas or emotions in writing. We will explore the artwork that can teach us about sociopolitical moments and inspire our compositions.

Ruben Quesada, Ph.D. is editor of Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (University of New Mexico Press, 2022) and author of Revelations (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018), Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011), and translator of Selected Translations of Luis Cernuda (Aureole Press, 2008). Dr. Quesada has served as an editor for AGNI, Pleiades, and The Kenyon Review. His writing appears in Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, and Harvard Review. He is an Associate Teaching Fellow at The Attic Institute and is the founder of the Mercy Street Reading Series. He lives in Chicago.