This Saturday: The Art of Revision

A half-day Zoom workshop on the difficult art of re-seeing your own poems.

Dear Readers,

This Saturday, July 9,  I’m offering a one-day class, “The Art of Revision'' from 12:30 - 4:30 (EST) at the Hudson Valley Writing Center. This class will be offered on Zoom (not in person, as it says on the website). I hope some of you can join me.

Yusef Komunyakaa said “revision literally means to re-see.” This re-seeing is the most severe test of the imagination—all the more challenging when the object of our sight is our own poem. 

In this workshop, I invite you to bring one almost-finished, difficult-to-place poem for us to work on together. We’ll work through principles from Nobel prize-winning poet Juan Ramón Jiménez’s book, The Complete Perfectionist: A Poetics of Work. You’ll have time to apply these to your draft, and I’ll be on hand to offer guidance and feedback. For even more detailed feedback, you’re welcome to send your poem to me in advance—I only ask that you limit the poem to two pages. 

You’ll leave this workshop with new ways to see your work, compassionate feedback from me and your fellow participants, and—most importantly—a toolkit of practical strategies for revision that you can use again and again.

I hope you’ll join me on Saturday. You can sign up for the workshop on the Hudson Valley Writers Center website.

As ever, 

Sean

P.S. If you’re curious to know more about Jiminéz, I wrote about him in a craft piece last October. I’ve just made this piece available for all subscribers—please check it out!