
Description in English
Over the course of this four-week workshop, we will read poems by 4 Latin American poets. We will observe the formal elements of each poet’s work, and pay attention to which aspects resonate with the participants as they generate their own writing. The workshop aims to build a shared space that encourages reading the poems bilingually, considering what sets our writing in motion, how our poems move from first to last line, what tools might help us keep our creative processes going.
While conducted mostly in Spanish, participants need not be completely fluent to join. Readings will be bilingual, and the instructor is bilingual and can assist with any difficult language. This workshop hopes to leave space for work in between and across the two languages (Spanish-English). Most of the time will be devoted to workshopping the participants’ own poems.
Descripción en español
En este taller leeremos poemas de 4 poetas latinoamericanas. Observaremos los elementos formales de sus textos y qué aspectos resuenan en lxs participantes mientras generan sus propios poemas. El taller apunta a construir un espacio conjunto que incentive la lectura de poemas en ediciones bilingües, y en el que pensaremos cómo poner nuestra escritura en movimiento, cómo se mueven nuestros poemas desde el primer verso hasta el último, qué herramientas nos pueden ayudar a sostener nuestros procesos creativos.
El taller será principalmente en español, pero lxs participantes no necesitan hablar español fluido. Las lecturas serán bilingües, la coordinadora del taller es bilingüe y podrá ayudar con cualquier dificultad de lenguaje. Este taller apunta a abrir un espacio para la escritura en una u otra lengua y/o entre lenguas (español-inglés). La mayor parte del tiempo estará dedicado a los poemas de lxs propixs participantes.
NB: This class will be taught on Zoom and will be capped at 15 students. It will meet for four consecutive Tuesdays, October 3-24. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
SILVINA LÓPEZ MEDIN was born in Buenos Aires and lives in New York. Her books of poetry include: La noche de los bueyes (Madrid, 1999), winner of the Loewe Foundation International Young Poetry Prize, Esa sal en la lengua para decir manglar (Buenos Aires, 2014; That Salt on the Tongue to Say Mangrove, tr. Jasmine V. Bailey, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2021), 62 brazadas (Buenos Aires, 2015), winner of the City of Buenos Aires Poetry Prize, and Excursión (Buenos Aires, 2021). Excursion was selected by Mary Jo Bang as the winner of the Oversound Chapbook Prize (Oversound, 2020). Her hybrid poetry book Poem That Never Ends was a winner of the Essay Press/University of Washington Bothell Contest (Essay Press, 2021). Her play Exactamente bajo el sol (staged at Teatro del Pueblo, 2008) was granted the Plays Third Prize by the Argentine Institute of Theatre. She co-translated Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet (2015) into Spanish. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, Poetry Daily, Harriet Books/Poetry Foundation, and MoMA/post, among others. She has taught poetry workshops at the New York Public Library, Hudson Valley Writers Center, the Flow Chart Foundation, the International Writing Program/University of Iowa, and NYU. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU and is an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.