Extra/Ordinary: Writing the Uncommon in the Everyday

Close reading is a practice of attention: an antidote to speed and frictionless swipability. It helps us appreciate literature more deeply and shapes us into more deft practitioners of craft. Paisley Rekdal notes, “When we take the same critical care with our own writing that we take with published poems, we are bound not only to see the patterns behind our failings, but (more important) new and more adventurous paths open up in the ways we represent our worlds.” In this generative class we will close-read—and write—alongside works that resist easy classification, including “Everyday Barf” by Eileen Myles, “Dead Doe” by Brigit Pegeen Kelly, “Exhausting a Place in Paris” by Georges Perec, Christina Sharpe’s “The Shapes of Grief,” and Rekdal’s “Nightingale: A Gloss.” Writers will come away with sharpened tools of observation, tactile craft practices, a portfolio of fresh writing starts, and a keener sense of the uncommon and the poetic within the everyday—on and off the page. Access Program Our Access Program offers writing class and seminar tuitions at a reduced rate. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at [email protected] if you have questions.