Coming of Age: Poetry Workshop with D. Nurkse

We are and radically are not our childhood selves. This workshop will look at poets including Yusef Komunyakaa, Larry Levis, Simon J Ortiz and Lucille Clifton and consider how poets handle life transitions–being one person today, someone wildly different tomorrow–in a coherent (or deliberately broken) arc? Do poets remain faithful to the way they saw as children?

NB: This recorded class is available to rent for two weeks through a private YouTube link. The link will be sent to the email you use to enroll (check your spam).  Please email [email protected] with questions.

D. Nurkse is the author of eleven collections of poetry, most recently LOVE IN THE LAST DAYS: AFTER TRISTAN AND ISEULT, A NIGHT IN BROOKLYN, THE BORDER KINGDOM, BURNT ISLAND, and THE FALL, from Alfred Knopf. He’s the recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim fellowship in poetry, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, two New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships, the Whiting Writers Award, and prizes from The Poetry Foundation and the Tanne Foundation. He served as poet laureate of Brooklyn from 1996 to 2001. His work has been translated into French, Russian, Italian, Estonian, and other languages. In 2011, a third edition of VOICES OVER WATER, an earlier collection, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best book of poetry published in the U.K. The publisher, CB Editions, London, also brought out a British edition of A NIGHT IN BROOKLYN.

Nurkse has presented his work at venues including the Jaipur International Literary Festival (India) and the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (UK).

Nurkse’s work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Poetry, The Times Literary Supplement (UK), The Guardian (UK), Poetry London (UK), The Hudson Review, the Los Angeles Times, and other venues. His poems have been anthologized in six editions of the Best American Poetry series.

Nurkse has also written on human rights and was elected to the board of Amnesty International-USA for a 2007-2010 term. He was a program officer for the Geneva-based NGO Defence for Children International from 1988 to 1992 and worked as a consultant for UNICEF. His study AT SPECIAL RISK: THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE ON MINORS IN HAITI was commissioned by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

Nurkse has taught poetry at Rikers Island Correctional Facility and in inner-city literacy programs, as well as at MFA programs at Rutgers, Brooklyn College, and Stonecoast. He’s currently a long-term member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife the writer Beth Bosworth, and the wild puppy Zephyr.