Syllabus: Poets' Jobs

Poets & Texts:

 

Wallace Stevens, Vice President of Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company, from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

Julia Cohen, Education Editor--Palgrave MacMillan, Who Could Forget the First Sensational Evening of the Night

Frank O'Hara, MOMA curator, from The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara

Ron Silliman, market analyst--computer industry, Alphabets

Sommer Browning, librarian & comic book maker & Flying Guillotine Press, The House in Narwhal

Frank Stanford, land surveyor, You

Keith Newton, Harp & Altar & Copy Editor--Wine Spectator, Sent Forth to Die in a Happy City

Elisa Gabbert, copywriter for WordStream, Thanks for Sending the Engine

Edward Thomas, journalist and soldier, from The Poems of Edward Thomas

William Carlos Williams, pediatrician, packet

Monica Youn, entertainment lawyer, Ignatz

Sampson Starkweather, science textbook editor, City of Moths

Justin Marks, copywriter--Weight Watchers & Kitchen Press editor, A Million in Prizes

Andrea Baker, antique dealer, like wind loves a window

Shafer Hall, bar keep, Never Cry Woof

Mathias Svalina, former baker & low voltage electrician, Play

Steve Scafidi, cabinet maker, Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer

Field Trips:

Wallace Stevens' house in Hartford, CT

MOMA

tour of a bakery

Course Objectives:

How do poets earn a living. Since there are more poets than there are teaching jobs, what do we do. The relationship of academia and poetry, poets: discuss. Does a job influence a poet's work. Does it matter. Does it make the poet a more interesting literary figure. Jay Hopler's (I think) analyzation of Wallace Stevens' reports. There are poets among us. What do these careers say about what poets value. What is value. Describe the financing of poetry. Name the poet who used to be a nun.