2022 Paris Writers' Workshop Poetry & Hybrid Writing with Jennifer K Dick

Paris Writers' Workshop 2022 with WICE, June 26-July 2, 2022:
https://wice-paris.org/pww2022

Poetry / Hybrid Writing Workshop

Instructor : Jennifer K. Dick

WU273 PWW Poetry Master Class: Poetry: What Can Language Do?

The power of poetry lies in its ability to transgress limits.

By this I mean that poetry traverses borders, internal and external boundaries of time, memory and voice. It expands our notions of what language can do. Technically, poets steal from the tool box of any written or artistic genre to find the modes of expression apt to the poem. For it is never what a poem says that makes it unforgettable, but how. This workshop, taking place within Paris, will be stimulated and nourished by generative writing in and about the city. The idea is to, as Victor Hugo said “Breathe Paris in. [For] it nourishes the soul.” And in these complex times, nourishment, expanding outwards, finding the words and the language to speak is tremendously important—both for those of you coming to Paris for the PWW and those of you who reside here year round. The technical focus will be on broadening your personal skill set. This will happen first through dialoging with samples of writing by contemporary poets from around the world as you compose new work based on prompts, experimentation and observation. Second, close reading of our own and each other’s work will hone our revision abilities. Third is what you will do after the PWW. This workshop should leave you with new modes to explore on your own and methods to deepen, hone and develop in your writing at home as you publish your first or fortieth book of poetry.

Please provide a writing sample of max 10 pages (1 poem max per page). During the week I will meet with each of you personally to discuss your writing sample. Note: the goal is not to provide me with your most polished work, but rather to give me a sample of work that you need help polishing or which feels like it needs something that perhaps another reader can help you locate and unpack. 

INSTRUCTOR BIO

Jennifer K Dick is the author of That Which I Touch Has No Name (Black Spring Press Group, London, 2022), Lilith: A Novel in Fragments (Corrupt, 2019), Circuits (Corrupt, 2013) and Fluorescence (University of GA Press, 2004) as well as 6 chap/artbooks. She has worked as a literary editor & reader for Versal (Amsterdam), Upstairs at Duroc (Paris), & The Colorado Review, has taught Creative Writing Workshops for WICE, the PWW, Kent University’s Paris in The Arts, Strasbourg Write a Story, and guest taught for Naropa and LIU Brooklyn’s MFA programs. She directs the UHA English Dept, curates Ivy Writers Paris & co-organizes “Écrire L’Art” at Kunsthalle Mulhouse Centre d’Art Contemporain.

Originally from Iowa, residing in France for over 20 years, she has also lived in Norwich, England, Colorado, and Massachussetts, and travelled extensively. Thus she is interested in writing about place and displacement, and global polyphony—that is, the connections we have to our language as it slips in and out of the languages of others. Recent projects include completing the manuscript Shelf Break, the writing of a chapbook of shipwreck-related poems for Tupelo's 30/30 project last August and collaborating with dancers, filmmakers and visual artists. Jennifer looks forward to the opportunity to encounter your poetry/mixed genre writing as you explore migrations, poetry and Paris together during the summer2022 PWW.

Go to the WICE website to sign up at:  https://wice-paris.org/event-4745869