Poetry Week
Diane Wakoski, Ed Skoog, David St. John
Special Guests
Brendan Constantine, Matthew Dickman, Anna Journey
July 8–12 (One-week session)
Course # AAWP Ø2
This special week of poetry is open to anyone with an interest in writing poetry, following the long-held Idyllwild Arts tradition of building a diverse community of voices to enrich the conversation, from enthusiastic beginners to emerging and established poets. Five days of workshops, craft talks, readings, and lively discussion under the pines will focus on helping participants write new poems and explore new ideas.
Participants will work with two teachers. Close-critique of drafts and revisions will be balanced with larger propositions about the nature of poetry. Small class size will ensure that each participant receives individual attention and advice about his or her development as a writer.
Our schedule includes workshops from 9–noon, and craft talks by faculty and special guests from 1–3 P.M. On Tuesday evening, the faculty and special guests will read from their work, followed by a book signing. Wednesday afternoon will be more loosely structured to allow for catching up on reading and writing, or sharing work in a less formal setting. Thursday evening, workshop participants are invited to read new poems from the workshops with the Idyllwild community, with a livestream for those unable to join us this year in person.
Tuition: $715
Enrollment limited to 10 students per workshop group (30 total).
2013 Poetry Week Daily Schedule
Monday, July 8
9am-12pm: Workshop 1
Afternoon: Craft Talk with David St. John, "The Braided Narrative in the Poems of Larry Levis
and Others"
Evening: Gallery Event
Tuesday, July 9
9am-12pm: Workshop 1 continues
Afternoon: Craft Talk with Matthew Dickman & Ed Skoog, "Stealing From Artists"
Evening: Poetry Reading: Faculty and Guest Poets
Wednesday, July 10
9am-12pm: Workshop - Mini Session
Afternoon: Student Poetry Reading & Writing Time
Evening: Adult Student Potluck
Thursday, July 11
9am-12pm: Workshop 2
Afternoon: Craft Talk with Anna Journey, "Aesop's Offspring: Poets and the Contemporary Beast Fable"
Evening: Poetry Student Reading
Friday, July 12
9am-12pm: Workshop 2 continues
Afternoon: Craft Talk with Diane Wakoski
4pm: Poetry Week Concludes
 Diane Wakoski, who was born in Southern California and educated at UC, Berkeley, made her home and began her poetry career in New York City from 1960-1973. In 1989 her selected poems, EMERALD ICE (Black Sparrow Press) won the William Carlos Williams prize from the PSA. The most recent of her more than 20 collections of poetry is THE DIAMOND DOG (ANHINGA, 2010) and a new collection, BAY OF ANGELS, will be published in 2013. Since 1975, she has lived in East Lansing, Michigan where she was Poet In Residence and University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, from which she retired in the spring of 2012. She has been married thirty years to photographer, Robert Turney.
NOTICE: Diane Wakoski will be replacing Jane Shore who suffered an injury and will not be able to participate this summer. Dr. William Mohr, had these words to describe Diane Wakoski:
"As an exemplary poet of the accessible avant-garde, Diane Wakoski has been a central force-field within a variety of poetic scenes in the United States for over a half-century. Although she has lived in the Midwest for many years, her poetry retains an essential streak of West Coast restlessness. Indeed, of the poets published by John Martin’s legendary Black Sparrow press in California, Wakoski is remarkable for her fidelity to her maverick poetics. Her poems speak of the journeys that love takes us on, and the rewards that await those whose commitment is undiminished. Whether she writes of the smudge-pots of Southern California orchards or the Magellanic Clouds, Wakoski’s poems resound with a distinctive lyrical candor that has no equivalent in its amplitude. Any chance to hear this legend is a gift to be treasured."
 Ed Skoog (MFA, Creative Writing, University of Montana) is author of Mister Skylight, a collection of poems (Copper Canyon, 2009) and Rough Day (Copper Canyon, 2013), as well as many stories and poems in literary magazines such as The Paris Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, The New Republic, American Poetry Review, and Narrative. He has been awarded fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and The Lannan Foundation. He has been a writer-in-residence at the Richard Hugo House, George Washington University, and The University of Montana. He is a past chair of creative writing at Idyllwild Arts Academy. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
 David St. John is the author of ten collections of poetry (including Study for the World’s Body, nominated for The National Book Award in Poetry), most recently The Auroras, as well as a volume of essays, interviews and reviews entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us.
Brendan Constantine (Special Guest) holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author of three collections of poetry and his work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably FIELD, Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, Zyzzyva, and The Los Angeles Times best seller The Underground Guide To Los Angeles. He currently teaches poetry at The Windward School in West Los Angeles. Brendan also regularly offers workshops for hospitals, foster-care centers and with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. www.brendanconstantine.com
 Matthew Dickman (Special Guest) is the author of Mayakovsky’s Revolver (W.W. Norton, 2012) and All-American Poem (American Poetry Review/ Copper Canyon Press, 2008) and the recipient of the Honickman First Book Prize, the May Sarton Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Kate Tufts Award from Claremont College, and the 2009 Oregon Book Award. He is co-author of the forthcoming 50 American Plays from Copper Canyon Press. He has also received residencies and fellowships from The Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas; The Vermont Studio Center; The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown; and The Lannan Foundation. His poems have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, and the New Yorker, among others.
Anna Journey (Special Guest) is the author of two collections of poetry: Vulgar Remedies (Louisiana State University Press, 2013) and If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting (University of Georgia Press, 2009), selected by Thomas Lux for the National Poetry Series. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, FIELD, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She received a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Southern California.
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