ENGH 608: Craft Seminars

ENGH 608-007: Writing About Climate Change: Ecopoetics
(Spring 2020)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM R

Section Information for Spring 2020

This will be a class in ecopoetical thinking and action—that is, poem-building. As readers, poets, and human animals, we’ll turn to earth’s multitudes of inter-related cohabitants, especially the ones we live with here in the Virginian Piedmont. By reading and composing poems in awareness of, for, in, and to the “natural” and “human-built” world, we’ll investigate how the language and ideas of ecology and science can feed our work, how a deep sense of place and space is rooted in attentiveness to the language and to the systems in and around us. Let’s see how our work as artists might at the very least express the grief, anger, fear, hope, frustration, and hopelessness we all feel in the face of climate change. Maybe we’ll even talk about how art might help save our planet from ourselves.
Expect to read several books of poetry and to write poems each week in response to that reading. We’ll begin with some twentieth century forerunners before turning to a number of contemporary poets.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Non-MFA students seeking permission must submit manuscript of original written work in appropriate genre. Various sections offer work in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, each focusing in different ways on the practices and the craft development of writers. Numerous writing assignments mixed with reading followed by careful analytical and craft discussions. Notes: Assignments vary with genre and specific topic. May be taken concurrently with ENGH 564, 565, 566. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 15 credits.
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Recommended Prerequisite: Admission to MFA program or ENGH 494, ENGH 492, ENGH 486, or permission of instructor. Non-MFA students must submit manuscript for review prior to registration.
Registration Restrictions:

Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Junior Plus, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate, Non-Degree or Undergraduate level students.

Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.

Schedule Type: Lec/Sem #1, Lec/Sem #2, Lec/Sem #3, Lec/Sem #4, Lec/Sem #5, Lec/Sem #6, Lec/Sem #7, Lec/Sem #8, Lec/Sem #9, Sem/Lec #10, Sem/Lec #11, Sem/Lec #12, Sem/Lec #13, Sem/Lec #14, Sem/Lec #15, Sem/Lec #16, Sem/Lec #17, Sem/Lec #18, Seminar
Grading:
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.

The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.