For info on poetry workshops or to register, send an email to janniedres@att.netSunday Poetry SalonsEach group meets once a month, usually on a Saturday or Sunday, in the locations listed below. The
topics vary, so if you miss one, you
can often catch up with that month's theme or a different topic at another group. Groups are ongoing and do not require a monthly commitment to attend, although reservations for each session are required.
Rossmoor, 1-3 p.m.  Anne Sexton & Sylvia Plath. Known for their sad demise into mental illness and suicide, these two transitional women poets left us influential and amazing word-work. Upcoming (June 17 & July 15) MORE ABOUT SALONS Salons are held in the following cities: BERKELEY/ALBANY 1st Sundays, 3-5:30 p.m. HOST: Gail Peterson *** NORTH OAKLAND HOSTS: Jeff Ghent & Sandra Lessenden HOST: Deborah Fruchey *** ROSSMOOR WALNUT CREEK/LAFAYETTE/ORINDA HOST: Marc Hofstadter 3rd Mondays 1-3 p.m. Participants are asked to develop and articulate their own "aesthetic criteria," the values and judgments they make in regards to a successful piece of art/poetry. A $5 donation to the facilitator is requested to cover the cost of printing the handouts, doing mailings and coordinating the groups. For more info, contact janniedres@att.net. POTENTIAL DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR SALONS * Contemporary poetry publication * Our Godfather & Godmother of Poetry: Walt Whitman & Emily Dickinson * America’s Poet Laureates * Imagism: Pound, Williams, Amy Lowell, * American Modernism: Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, e.e. cummings * The Fugitive Poets [associated with Vanderbilt University in Tennesee]: John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Laura Riding * Great Persona Poets: SpoonRiver, Langston Hughes, Marilyn Nelson * Harlem Renaissance Poets * Émigré Poets in America: Robert Louis Sevenson, Joseph Brodsky, Charles Simic, Nina Cassian * The Continentalists: poets deeply inspired by European tradition, i.e., W.S. Merwin * Saying what we shouldn't: confessional poetics & its backlash. * The spiritual thread in American poetry: Puritans to Mary Oliver * The spooky tradition: Poe to Lovecraft * Poetry and democracy: a vision of Carl Sandburg et al * Early mavericks (poets writing outside of academic tradition) * Symbolist merry-go-round: Poe to Baudelaire; Mallarme to Wallace Stevens * Early California poets: Ina Coolbrith, Edwin Markham, Joaquin Miller, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, Charles Stoddard, et al * Humorist poets: Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, Robert Service * Accessibility and erudition in American poetry * Vietnam era poets: Yusef Koumanyaka, Bruce Weigl, Robert Bly, Denise Levertov, et al or poets emerging from recent wars: Bruce Turner, for example * American nature poetry tradition * The "fireside poets": Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Emerson, et al * Asian influences Early modernists: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edgar Guest, T.S. Eliot, e.e. cummings * poets of the Harlem Renaissance * The Black Mountain Poets: Charles Olson, Larry Eigner, Robert Duncan, Ed Dorn, Denise Levertov, Robert Creely Great poet groupies: Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop; Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath * Emerson's influence: "The Poet" and his Harvard talk on American literature * Whitman through Ginsberg: the Hebraic tradition in free-verse poetry * Protest songs/poems * accessibility and erudition in American poetry * Some great female American poets: Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Edna St. Vincent Millay * Playing with the net down: early free versers * Playing with the net in place: poets in meter (Frost) * Poets of Canada and Mexico |  Unique ONGOING POETRY CRITIQUE GROUP FORMING Writing poetry is about a lot more than being clever, scribing one lush image after another, receiving perfunctory applause at open mics, or trying to get your work published. These days, that's the easy part. In my opinion, there are more poets trying to get published than trying to write good poetry. We are flooded with poems that center on individual epiphanies, elegant lines, ironic or satirical humor, political ranting, and layers of detail that seem not to add up to very much. If, like Chuck Berry, poetry is your blood flow; if, like Etheridge Knight, poetry has saved your life; if like me, poetry keeps you as close to sanity as you can possibly stand, this workshop may be right for you. This twice-monthly poetry critique group in the East Bay will meet on the 1st and 4th Wednesdays of the month, from 7-9:15 p.m, complimenting an already existing group that meets on the 2nd and 3rd Wednesdays. Y Jannie has been teaching poetry in the Bay Area for over 25 years. She is the co-founder and publisher of the Bay Area Poets Review (http://bayareapoetsreview.com) and SF Poetry Examiner at examiner. com. ***********************************  WHERE THE HECK IS CROCKETT? Crockett is located off Highway 80 just south of the Carquinez Bridge, about 20-30 minutes north of Oakland, northwest of Walnut Creek, and across the Richmond Bridge from Marin. Many people may know it as that town where the C&H Sugar Plant is located right below the Carquinez Bridge.  | ********************************** CHAPBOOK WORKSHOP 7:30-9:30 p.m., Thursdays, May 24-July 26 Complete a body of work to self-publish or send to contests. This intensive 10-week class (East Bay location to be announced) is for serious poets with 18-25 poems ready to be made publication-ready. $250. Begins*************************** CREATIVE WRITING INTENSIVES For poets and prose writers.Mothers and Fathers Sunday, June 10, 12-4 (4 hours), held in Crockett, CA Exploring the deeply personal theme of being a son or daughter--or parent--in the always fascinating, sometimes troubling, but essential connection between the generations. $30. Art of Poetry Sunday, July 8, 11-5 (6 hours), held in Albany, CA Exploring the cross-fertilization of the visual arts and poetry. We will write, read great ekphrastic poems, and do a bit of art. $50 (includes supplies). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Memoir & Creative Non-Fiction Writing GroupFriday afternoons (1st & 3rd) 1-3:30 p.m. in Crockett $50 /month Everyone has a personal story to tell, about his or her own life, or in honor of the life of a loved one. It can take many forms and find outlets in self-published works, online blogs and websites, genealogical reports, and marketable journalism. Getting started, putting pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard, and sustaining enthusiasm are just two of the hurdles between an initial inspiration and the finished work. This group is for beginners or for individuals who are launching a new direction in their writing. It will be filled with fun exercises, editorial assistance, and some tips on taking work to the next level.  SEE “Sleep to Wake: Robert Browning Remembers Elizabeth.” Julian López-Morillas’ solo work will be performed on the 200 birthday of the great Victorian poet Robert Browning, master of the dramatic monologue, Monday, May 7, 7:30, at the Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St., downtown Berkeley. Free but reservations suggested to reserve seating: janniedres@att.net or 510/290-6254. A shorter version will be hosted by the San Francisco Browning Society on Friday, May 11, 2-4 p.m. at the Sequoias, Geary St., San Francisco. (http://sanfranciscobrowningsociety.org). The show travels this August to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. |
