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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

Poetry Reading List, and Class Plans Thereafter

Here’s the reading list for the next couple of weeks. There will be a fair amount of reading, and you will be leading a discussion somewhere in here, so think about whether you’re interested in discussing poems, autobiography, short stories, or essays — there’s at least one of each available. I’ll be taking volunteers next class for the remaining leader spots.

Nov. 11th:

Some final discussion of Smoke Signals
Roo Borson — “City Lights” and “Summer River”
Michael Ondaatje — “King Kong Meets Wallace Stevens”

Nov. 13th:

Steve Noyes — “Fa Lun Gong”
Alexis Kienlen — “chinese café,” “the boat,” “slant eyes chink,” “separate dinners,” “chinese funeral,” and “ancestor worship.”
Michael Ondaatje — “Light” and “A Dog in San Francisco.”Also on Nov. 13th, the leaders for Nov. 18th will announce which poems we will study on that day, and new leaders will be chosen for Nov. 20th.

Nov. 18th (Leaders Ji Hyun & Xiaoxien (? Sorry, it’s hard to guess because it’s written in Hangeul!))

Two of the three selections of poems from Dionne Brand, as selected by the leaders.

Nov. 20th (Leaders TBA):

The remaining poem or poems by Dionne Brand
Eric Ormsby’s four poems

In the following weeks, we’ll do the following (and need leaders):

Nov. 25th:

Evelyn Lau’s autobiography Runaway, Chapter 1 & 2. Leaders TBA.
Evelyn Lau’s short story (title TBA). Leaders TBA.

Nov. 27th:

Pico Iyer’s essay “The Multiculture” from The Global Soul, led by TBA.

December 2nd:

Watch Such a Long Journey in class, with your subtitles. No class leaders.

December 4th:

Discuss Such a Long Journey (the film) and Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry, Chapters 1 & 2. Leaders TBA.

In Search of a Style

Hi there,

I mentioned Jeffrey Brown, who will be illustrating one of my stories in an upcoming anthology, as a possible example of a simpler style we could use in the art in our book. Here are some examples of his work, from books available online:

Brown’s page at The Holy Consumption: click on the Sample pages to see some samples of his art
samples from Brown’s book Unlikely
samples from Brown’s book Aieou: Any Easy Intimacy
samples from Brown’s book Minisulk: More Sappy Comics

Have a look and see what you think. We may not have Brown’s talent for expression emotion in a specific moment, but we surely could use a simpler style like his to make our story more accessible!