assignments for 11/30

1. Read the Goldberg chapters listed on the syllabus and print points to discuss to class.

2. Go through the Yedda Morrison websites below to see the art/visual work and read some of the poetry of Yedda Morrison. Print and read the poems from the dusie.org and the shampoopoetry sites to discuss in class. Bring 2 points for discussion to share in class from the visual or textual work.

3. Type up essay writing exercise (posted below)

YEDDA MORRISON

Writer and visual artist Yedda Morrison was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her books include Darkness, Chapter 1 (Little Red Leaves, 2009), Girl Scout Nation (Displaced Press, 2008), My Pocket Park (Dusie Press, 2007), Co (Collaborations with Bruce Andrews, Roof Books, 2006) and Crop (Kelsey Street Press, 2003). Morrison was a founding editor of Tripwire: a Journal of Experimental Poetics and Visual Art. She has performed and exhibited her work in the US and Canada and is represented by Republic Gallery in Vancouver, BC. She currently lives in Montreal.

Samples of work :

http://yeddamorrison.com/
http://www.dusie.org/morrison.html
http://www.shampoopoetry.com/ShampooTwentyfour/morrison.html
Review of work http://jacketmagazine.com/32/russo-morrison.shtml


Writing Nonfiction Exercise


Kim Barnes: “What is a Word Worth?”
I often speak to my writing students about "bringing their intellect to bear" as they compose their personal essays. What I mean by this is that the best literary nonfiction should work at a number of different levels, including the level of intellectual stimulation. The problem we face as writers of nonfiction is how to challenge our individual stories--how to take the narrative itself and expand its breadth and reach to encompass more of the world.
One exercise that I use to help my students achieve this goal involves building an essay from a single word. First, the students each choose one word--any word--to which they are particularly drawn, a word that resonates for them. A young man just discharged from the military chose "paratrooper"; a middle-aged woman of Scottish descent chose "bagpipes." I then require that the students write five sections of nonfiction revolving around this single word: The first, third, and fifth sections must be personal memories triggered by the word, and they must be written in present tense no matter the actual chronology; the second and fourth sections must be more analytical, intellectual, philosophical, and explore the word in a more scholarly way. I direct the students to study the word's derivation and history. They often find passages in religious texts and mythologies that inform the word's meaning in their own experience. Some discuss the word's appearance and use in contemporary literature or film.
The goal of this exercise is to weave the word's broader application into the writer's personal experience. Ideally, the five sections weave together and inform one another and bring to the essay a kind of intellectual unity as well as a greater depth and complexity.

from: http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/Robert_Root/AWP/cnf.htm