In this course, we will read books by acclaimed African American poets who h­ave won Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and commendations from the Library of Congress. We will also examine book reviews, articles, and interviews that illuminate popular and critical responses to these authors and their work. The course is designed to teach students how different poems function—through close reading, and careful attention to poems’ formal properties. Hard work is required; love of the genre and confidence in one’s ability to understand it is not (as the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey, admitted in an interview, “growing up, I didn't think I could understand poetry, I didn't think that it had any relevance to my life”).

This semester, weekly podcasts will take the place of traditional lectures; class time will be devoted to discussion, creative writing exercises, and sharing and critiquing students’ poems and papers. The podcasts will explore how poems of different types work; some major concerns that have animated African American poetry since 1950; how syllabus authors develop ideas, motifs, and themes; and how these authors’ diverse work has been received over time. In addition to reading a broad selection of writers’ work in the Course Reader, and viewing/listening to recordings of their online poetry readings and craft talks, we will also have three focused “Bookshop” weeks during which we workshop one book and pay close attention to individual poems and the ways they fit together.

Objectives

1. To gain a basic factual knowledge of major 20th and 21st century African American poets, their work, and their critical and popular reception.

2. To learn how to do close readings of poems.

3. To develop the critical skills to identify and compare literary themes, styles, and strategies employed by this group of writers.

4. To learn about poetic form and meaning through academic and creative writing.

5. To experiment and grow as writers in ways that help us each articulate our hopes and meet meaningful personal and professional goals. show less