"trickling through the intimate brooks"
Keats, Minne, Tate, Edson, Kafka, James
John Keats:
Richard Minne (tr. from Flemish by Tanis Guest):
James Tate:
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Russell Edson:
Franz Kafka (tr. from German by Ross Benjamin):
Elmore James, “Something Inside Me,” rec. 1960:
About Sean Singer
Sean Singer Editorial Services
I will be teaching a workshop (12/24 and 12/25 from 10-6 EST) for writers who wish to engage with themes of Jewishness—identity, culture, history, family, ethics, diaspora and exile—in a time of rising antisemitism. Through two days of craft talks, generative prompts, creative readings of poems from underrated and overlooked Jewish poets, and individual manuscript consultations, writers will gain greater awareness of the ways poets write about questions of ethnicity and identity, and a stronger grasp of strategies by which they can discover the self through language.
Hudson Valley Writer’s Center is hosting the workshop on Zoom over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—a time that can bring discomfort or isolation for many people. The goal of this retreat is to repurpose and transform this time. The retreat is not limited to Jewish poets: any writer interested in reading and writing about this subject is welcome to attend.
Writers who participate in this retreat will gain:
Intensive feedback on developmental ideas, drafts, revision, and process;
Detailed notes on poems they bring to the retreat or write during the retreat;
Greater capacity to write towards the themes of the course from their own lived experience;
Greater literacy with a variety of Jewish poets writing in English and other languages;
Strategies to write with clarity about themes of intergenerational trauma and exile.
Each participant will receive a 30-minute individual consultation with the instructor. These can take place during the retreat or after, allowing writers more time to process the material.
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