Fixed Poetic Forms

For many writers, fixed poetic forms such as the sestina or pantoum feel restrictive rather than generative or inspiring. This course is designed to help writers overcome the fear of fixed form through in-class practice, peer workshops, and analysis of fixed form poems. Students will be guided through writing practices and specialized writing prompts to generate words, ideas, or symbols that will serve as catalysts for discovering fresh language. Ultimately, this course aims to revitalize our relationship to language by paradoxically expanding our creative capacities through controlled application.

This course will focus on understanding how to transform our revelatory and expansive ideas into structurally restrictive forms. In other words, this course aims to revitalize our relationship to language by paradoxically expanding our creative capacities through controlled application. In addition, students will analyze fixed-form poems in class to identify how and when poets employ form and how it enhances imagery, texture, and theme.

Class Outcomes:

• Identify the structural significance and rules of specific fixed forms.

• Analyze fixed form poems to understand how the “restrictive” form enhances imagery, texture, and theme, as well as identity when, why, and how to employ form.

• Compose original poems that adhere to the constraints of the chosen fixed form.

• Identify new and exciting ways to generate specific words, ideas, symbols, and metaphors to catalyze the creative process.

•Become comfortable and familiar with fixed forms and ultimately view them as generative rather than restrictive.

Access Program

We want our writing classes and seminars to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. 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 susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions.

Liaison position

Every in-person class and seminar at Literary Arts has one liaison position. Liaisons perform specific duties for each class meeting. If you are a liaison for a class or seminar, the full amount of your tuition is covered by Literary Arts.

Apply here for the liaison position.