FBR 105: The summer session is nearly here . . .

This is nothing but a bit of fluff, but it bothers me not to produce something by deadline, so for this Friday, a brief mention about seminars.

For the last two days I've been poring over materials for the "cohort" seminar I'm delivering at Lesley at the end of the month, have got a structure, have spent far too many hours getting my readings in pdf format, but am excited about the texts and the questions they should lead us to discuss.

The title is: IN COLD PRINT: THE CROSS-POLLINATION OF FICTION, NONFICTION, AND POETRY. Those attentive folks will know that I've talked about the topic before. At the residency, however, the class will be made up of second semester students in all genres — adult fiction, nonfiction, writing for young people, and, I'm told, one poet. About twenty in all.

I do love the mixed group for its angles of vision. As a bonus, it's such a comfort to know that not everyone wants to write a novel. In a former life, I scribbled a substantial amount of poetry, too, so the three threads should allow for some good conversation. For poetry I'm drawing on Lowell, Bishop, Sexton, and Whitman, and staying away from Heaney, whose work I know perhaps the best, since his writing seems on a plane that doesn't immediately cross over as easily as the confessional writers. There's probably a way to do it (the bog man poems?), but my head is a bit clogged right now, so I'm taking the easier path.

Still, I'm reminded that my preparation for the previous semester's seminar was done in the midst of a ton of end-of-year deadlines, but came out all right in the end. Giving that one again will work out some of its kinks, and doubtless there will be plenty of kinks in the one I'm working up now, too. But the benefit of all of these things is that they are fluid, subject to interruption, clarification, reconsideration, and do-over. I'm told there are writers who lay down the law when they teach. That doesn't seem right, but I am the definition of a newcomer. Anyway, I hope there will be many more seminars, round tables, panels, and tavern evenings, since there is so much to work on and chat about and argue over.

Till next week then!