“UNACKNOWLEDGED LEGISLATORS”: READING AND WRITING POLITICALLY ENGAGED POETRY with Yerra Sugarman (via Zoom)

How do poets contribute to the creation and enactment of progressive laws? How are they legislators: global citizens who respond to the urgent struggles of their times?

In this course,  we will consider the intersection between activism, identity, and poetry in our reading and writing. Focusing on 19th, 20th, and 21st-century poets whose work reflects the concerns of particular sociohistorical moments, we will discover the ways—both known and, as yet, unknown—in which politically-engaged poetry can be works of art that explore the individual psyche and body and the collective psyche and body politic.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom 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 Dec 1 and will be due on Dec 15 for all winter/spring 2024 classes.

Yerra Sugarman is an American poet, essayist, translator, and teacher. Born in Canada, she lives in New York City. She is the author of three poetry collections: Forms of Gone, which was a National Book Critics Circle “Favorite First Book” and was awarded PEN American Center’s PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award; The Bag of Broken Glass, which was a National Book Critics Circle “Recommended Book”; and, most recently, Aunt Bird, a hybrid collection comprised of lyric poems, prose poems, and lyric essays published by Four Way Books. Aunt Bird was the winner of the American Book Fest’s 2022 Best Books Awards in the category of General Poetry, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards in Poetry, as well as for the New England Poetry Club’s Motton Book Prize.