Poets Just Want to Have Fun: When Poetry Incorporates Pop Culture with Alexis Sears (via Zoom)

From Frank O’Hara’s writing about Billie Holiday to Tiana Clark’s Rihanna-inspired poem— music, movies, television, and international icons have made cameos in poetry throughout history. Our awareness of the rapidly shifting trends in entertainment can impact how we interpret a poem and encourage us to reflect on societal change. In this master class, we will study a variety of poems to examine the ways pop culture and poetry intertwine. What is the purpose of referencing or discussing celebrities, lyrics, television shows (including those perceived as “lowbrow”), and more in a poem? Are there downsides? And, if we were to incorporate pop culture into our own poetry, what are effective ways to do so? This class will focus on craft, analysis, and risk-taking in our own writing processes— most importantly, it will be a ton of fun.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom (Sunday, July 14, 12:30-2:30 PM ET) and will be capped at 15 students. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email misty@writerscenter.org with any questions.

All HVWC scholarship applications will be available on May 1 and will be due on May 15 for all summer/fall 2024 classes.

Alexis Sears is the author of Out of Order, winner of the 2021 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and the Poetry by the Sea Book Award: Best Book of 2022. Her work appears in Best American Poetry, Poet Lore, Cortland Review, Cimarron Review, Rattle, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University. Editor-at-Large of the Northwest Review and Contributing Editor of Literary Matters, she lives in Los Angeles