Check this Stuff Out

collage poem art: http://dusie.blogspot.com/2014/02/tuesday-poem-44-marthe-reed-article-of.html



Go here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/202389647/novel-approach-a-coincidental-mailart-assemblage

to see a recently digitized project, recovered...

Novel Approach: A Coincidental Mailart Assemblage

Published by Xerox Sutra Editions

A mail art novel with works from 115 contributors from around the world. Originally published in 1990 by Xexoxial Editions and Plaster Cramp Press, this has long been out of print. Contributions are numbered with a key at the end of the book.

For the Week of Jan. 28 and Tue., Feb. 4

1.      Write about one of the essays, or two sections that speak in relation to one another, from Poetics Journal. Focus on a few key passages and discuss these in terms of their relevance or importance to thinking about the relation between theory and writing, or the philosophical and the practical, for example. How you go about doing this is totally up to you. Write 1-2 pages.

2.      Use the pieces on Dahlen (the essay from the text, “Forbidden Knowledge”; the selection from Dahlen’s A Reading, and my short piece to help contextualize) and write a 2-3 page creative piece of your own which incorporates material from 2-3 (or more) sources. Dahlen’s use of sources (Freud and etc) is subtle and may or not be recognizable. Think about the possibilities for doing intertextuality by reading, appropriating, cutting, pasting, interpreting, responding, etc. to sources in your own creative writing. Again, how and what it looks like is totally up to you.

These two pieces of writing are due by Noon next Tue, Feb. 4. Post these to your blog, read each others’ before class time on Tue., and bring hard copies to share and discuss in class. You can write comments on each others’ posts but it is not required, though read and come thinking about your own and others’ writing.

In class next week we’ll discuss Hejinian’s “Rejection of Closure” (the pdf, which is a little different from the one in the book) and these readings
from Poetics Journal (Bernstein, Dahlen, Watten, Harryman) as well as Scalapino (270), Sonbert (289), Alferi (303). You will want to plan ahead so you can read the new essays as well as each others’ blog posts before class on Tue.

Think about the following for our discussion in class: poetics (as described in the intro and in terms of how you see these essays as “poetics”; the relation between theorizing and writing (praxis?); form, genre, narrative, non/narrative, style, construction and other textual and material elements addressed in the readings; how you are thinking about any of this in your own work.

We’ll also look at some examples of projects, work, and writing that crosses genre boundaries, thinks about form and structure and narrative and etc.

Submit Your Work!

Sierra Nevada College Review

Submit: please send no more than five poems or five pages of poetry, whichever comes first. Fiction, literary nonfiction, or hybrid works should not exceed 4000 words.

The best way to get an idea of what sort of material we publish is to read the review and submit your work to us if we look like your kind of place. Back issues are available for $5.00 and current issues for $10.00. To purchase copies, please send a check or money order to The Sierra Nevada College Review, 999 Tahoe Blvd., Incline Village, NV 89451-9500. Selected poetry and prose can be found on our website.

Submissions are open between September 1st and February 15th. Please only send one submission per reading period. Additional submissions will not be considered.

Send work and mention that you are in the creative writing program at Eastern Michigan University. 

Assignments

Reading assignments for the rest of January. Also see the Syllabus link on EMU Online for schedule updates.


January

 21  Group Assignment: See assignment on EMU Online Doc Sharing and posted on Class Blog

28  In-Class: Print, read, bring Hejinians's Rejection of Closure (EMU Online)
read and bring Guide to Poetics Journal: Introduction II (p.11-33); Bernstein (46); Dahlen (55); Watten (158); Harryman (225)

Group Assignment 1

Group Assignment 1: week of Jan. 21

Meet with your group in person. Each person should bring a writing exercise/prompt (you can create this on your own, google and find something useful, or use something you’ve done in a previous creative writing class). Share/discuss the prompts and choose one to all do (do these individually but everyone in the group should do the same one). Work on writing/responding to the prompt at your meeting in person and then share what you write. 

Take the writing home, revise and type, and post this on your blog. On your blog, in addition, include the following:

What was the prompt (summarize or copy/paste)? What is the result (post your written piece)? And what kinds of things did you talk about in your group meeting (in regard to the prompts, the results of the prompts, or etc.)?

Post to your blog no later than Fri., Jan 24, 5pm

Group 1: Patrick, Trinady, Ian
Group 2: Lee, Ryan, Shaun
Group 3: Tiffany, Jason, Sami 

Internship Fair

This is a reminder that our Internship Fair will be held next Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 from 12 pm - 3 pm in the Student Center Grand Ballroom.  Please share this information with your faculty, and ask that they pass the information on to their students.  This will be an excellent opportunity for students to meet with employers who will be offering Internships during the school year and in the summer.  (Some may also have employment opportunities!) 

Student registration link:  https://emuinternshipfair2014.eventbrite.com

Any questions can be directed to me at mfallot@emich.edu or 7-5621.

Thank you for your support!
Mary Jane Fallot

Welcome to the Creative Writing Capstone

Here you will find assignments, updates, and announcements. This week is strange because our first class was cancelled due to the weather. Here is your first assignment:

First Blog Assignment Due no later than Tue., Jan 14 at noon. There are also two readings on the syllabus for 1/14; you are responsible to read, print, bring, and come prepared to discuss these readings on Tue.

1.      Set up Blog (see instructions at end of syllabus)

Post 1: (3-4 paras) Introduction, say something about your writing, your experience in the creative writing program so far, and discuss the following:

In the creative writing program we often discuss texts that fall outside of traditional genre categories. This semester we will also talk specifically about the relationship between form (how a text is written, structured, constructed using materials such as language, line breaks, imagery, white space or color or text or etc. visual elements on the page, and other elements) and content (what it is about, meaning, message, etc).  Course readings will seem difficult but also lend toward complex discussion of form and content issues. This will also make thinking and talking about “genre” challenging in new and different ways. Read the pdf article on genre (Literary vs Genre Fiction) (posted on EMU Online) and then write 2-3 paragraphs that explain, define, and discuss genre in your own terms (from “genre” fiction such as science fiction and mystery, to genre in more general terms such as poetry, fiction, nonfiction). Also, do you write in a specific or particular genre? What is your experience so far in terms of reading and writing transgenre, hybrid genre, and other kinds of writing that seems outside of genre categories?

2.      Email your blog url address to me and I will post these on the class blog page.