Registration required:
Online, 2 sessions / $125 (members take 10% off)
Register
Join us at the Poetry Society for a two-session, online seminar on the life and work of the poet Jack Spicer.
This course, led by the editor of Spicer's collected works (Wesleyan), will elucidate the life, work, and major contributions of a mid-century American poet. Spicer's books, talks, community workshops, and countercultural happenings spurred the emergence of a new American poetry, and his legacy continues to influence an international avant-garde that has taken up his ideas about poetic dictation and the roles of mythology and popular culture in poetry.
The class will consist of lectures providing an overview of Spicer's life, concerns, and milieu, along with in-class readings and guided discussions of some of Spicer's most influential poems and talks.
Note: Class sessions will not be recorded: Real-time attendance is required.
Required textbook purchase: My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer
Class modality: Online synchronous (real-time attendance required)
Class size: 8 to 25 students
Required textbooks: Yes
Recorded: No
In-class & prompted writing: No
Workshopping & feedback: No
Peter Gizzi is the author of several collections of poetry, most recently Fierce Elegy, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award (2023); Now It's Dark (2020); and Archeophonics, a finalist for the National Book Award (2016); all from Wesleyan. In 2024, Penguin UK published an expanded edition of Fierce Elegy (winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize). He is the series editor of The Collected Works of Jack Spicer, now in four volumes. He teaches Poetry and Poetics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Author photo by Carol Lollis.
A limited number of need-based scholarships are available to cover the enrollment costs of Poetry Society classes. To receive and fill out a scholarship survey, email parker@poetrysociety.org.
