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This is a noncredit, online writing class through UW-Madison Continuing Studies.

Poetry Writing: Getting to Good

From sound and imagery to delivering your theme.

Improve your poetry writing skills as you move step by step from activities that inspire a first draft, on to strategies for revision, then to submitting a polished poem in each of five units, each including a professional critique. Registration is limited.

Untangle and then interweave the separate strands of poetry. Instructor Angela Rydell will guide you through the five units:

1. Sound: Melody and Music
2. Tangibility: Image and Emotion
3. Figures of Speech: Metaphor and Meaning
4. Language: Compression and Explosion
5. Theme: Synthesis and Synergy

In each unit, you work through a variety of exercises, readings and challenges which lead you to writing a polished poem with your new skills. You will receive a written critique of your poem to explain what you've mastered and where you can improve. You will analyze poems, reflect and experiment, practice stretching exercises and learn strategies for revising your poems. The course material also includes writer checklists, illustrative and humorous examples, a glossary of terminology, useful Web links and interactive self-tests.

Writing, reading and falling in love with poetry are all processes. None of these happen using the linear or intuitive side of the brain alone, and none of these happen suddenly rather than gradually. To accommodate this, Getting to Good combines discussion, examples and links to a variety of sites and poets. You will immerse yourself as a poet in varied kinds of experience. The course encourages you with specific tips for reading, writing casually and writing seriously, all the while reflecting, questioning and taking various kinds of writing risks.

You do the lessons at your own pace. You can e-mail questions any time, with or without a lesson.

Your instructor

Angela Rydell, MFA, has taught creative writing through UW-Madison Continuing Studies since 2006. Programs include Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat, School of the Arts at Rhinelander, Writers' Institute, and Weekend with Your Novel. She has also taught at Edgewood College and in the national program "Senior Summer School," been a poet-in-residence in elementary schools, and is the lead judge for the 2010 Wisconsin People & Ideas poetry contest.

She is a recipient of Poets & Writers' Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Sun, Alaska Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals.

How it works

You can start our workshops anytime, and there are no required hours to log on. It's all done with one-on-one correspondence with the instructor using email. You can read and print course materials in the course Web site, which you can access at your leisure with a password that we will give you. We have writers from around the world participating in our workshops, and we have success stories. A lot of great writing gets accomplished via email. Because of the one-on-one nature of our workshops, you'll find them an excellent "coaching" or mentoring situation that will keep you going. And if you want to just work on your own-hey, that's fine too. Of course you can do the suggested exercises on your own without the feedback if you'd rather do that. We're also here throughout the year if you have questions.
 
Review the current technical requirements for students in Learn@UW online courses.

Costs

Registration is $159. Registration is limited. You will earn 2.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) when you complete the course. Register any time.

You offer two poetry courses.  Which should I take first?

Take either course first. The instructor gears each one to your needs. Every poet—from beginner through advanced/already published—can benefit from either course. 

What’s the difference between the two offerings?

“Getting to Good” gives you:

• Reflection and warm-up exercises
• In-depth discussion of one-liners from Shakespeare, Dickinson and contemporary poets
• A look at how theme creates a poem greater than the sum of its parts
• A foundation in the history of poetry

“Poetic Leap” gives you:

• Practical tips on drafting and revision
• In-depth discussion of one or two contemporary poems per unit
• A look at how line breaks tease meaning or deliver it
• Bonus exercises for your Writer’s Notebook

How to register

Online: Register now online with our secure server.

Mail: Print and mail our registration form.

Telephone: Call 608-262-2451 or toll-free 800-725-9692 to register. Our phone is answered M-F, 7:00 am-4:30 pm Central Time. At other times please leave a message, and we will return your call.

Contact

Your contact for more information about Poetry Writing: Getting to Good is Laura Kahl, 608-262-3982, lkahl@dcs.wisc.edu.

For more information about online learning contact Lori O'Neill at 608-263-6322 or toll-free 877-336-7836 or email LSAonline@dcs.wisc.edu.

Also of interest

Explore other online writing classes.

The same writing staff that bring you these great online classes also provide individualized writing critique services. Learn more by visiting our writing critique services web page.

 

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