Thursday, December 6, 2012

All Classes, Personal Favor, Pretty Please


I volunteer at Cozy Cat Cottage. Despite the precious name, it is pretty hardcore on the rescue front and the campaign to spay and neuter every cat that comes through its doors.   It has placed over 6000 homeless or rescued cats into homes, including the one in the story that I wrote for them for the "Heartwarming stories" portion of the contest for the annual, international Shelter Challenge by Petfinder.   Hundreds of stories get submitted and the one that represents Tiger Lily and Cozy Cat: "One Fierce Flower," was fortunate enough to make the top ten.  Sadly, only the top two stories will win any funds for their shelters and CCC, having recently expanded their space in order to house a low-cost spay/neuter clinic and a surgery room, is in real need of funds.

If you would be so kind as to make a little daily routine of voting for One Fierce Flower from now until December 16th, once a day from any computers you encounter and/or your cell phone, you would be helping us out immensely.

http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/contest.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_contest_from_shelterchallenge

American Lit. Final Days Schedule

Remember to have read or rather, re-read:  Sonny's Blues and White Angel by James Baldwin and Michael Cunningham, respectively. And don't forget the Lobster essay in your Touchstone anthologies. Anyone forgetting his/her book or not able to participate, will indicate that the reading has not been completed and will receive a zero for the day.

Let's give your new student teaching group something with which to work during their discussion. When it's your turn to present, you'll appreciate the effort, I promise.


Remaining groups to present on Wednesday, which is also our final day of class.  :-( 

See you soon.



Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Friday, November 16, 2012

American Lit Update

Week of 10/31
  W 10/31  NY School discussion, Bukowski.
Homework:  Eula Bliss The Pain Scale (p. 2, Touchstone)
 F 11/02  Discussion: The Lyric Essay through Bliss’ essay.
Homework:  Selected readings: Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell.
W 11/07   Eula Bliss Essay 
 Homework:
The Beats and  
(Intro and Howl and America)
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15308
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html
Ferlinghetti
Bio, Poems
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/367

 the Confessionalists
Read
Sylvia Plath's bio and all the poems on this site:
 http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/11  
This introduction to Confessional verse:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5650

Anne Sexton:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/14
Bio. and all of the poems
Robert Lowell:
The bio.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/10
and The Skunk Hour



 11/09  
Homework:  Reading: Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, Michael Cunningham’s White Angel,
Poetry Comics article,
**Your ekphrastic pieces and process papers (500 words minimum) are due on Friday 11/28. 
The short version of this assignment is that you will be responding or imitating a piece of literature through visual art. Examples abound: W.H. Auden’s Musee de Beaux Art or WCW’s Icarus (myth-painting-poem).  Or Charles Simic’s poems that respond to Joseph Cornell’s boxes (for the reverse).  Consider the poetry poem:  http://www.tcj.com/a-bianca-stone-interview/
http://www.poetrycomics.com/about/
Week of 11/13
  W 11/14  Film  
  My reading at Florida Southern College (and representing CCAD)  Your class plans will be to take roll and watch the movies that I will have left for you.
  F  11/16  Discussion beginning with the subversive, the idea of what is truth and The Sheep-Child by James Dickey. To your reading, I would like to add Falling by Dickey, too. 
Week of 11/20 
THANKSGIVING BREAK!  Safe travels and happy Thanksgiving!
Week of 11/27
  W  11/26   Discussion  of Beats, Confessionalists and stories and  
F 11/28  Ekphrastic pieces to be presented. Process papers (only) to be turned in to me.
 : Ekphrastic pieces to be presented Also, BRING YOUR TOUCHSTONE ANTHOLOGIES TO CLASS. 
 Class work towards group presentations of Essays from Touchstone Anthology. First groups to let the rest of us know  (There will be an oral and written component for each group member.)  As a group: you will decide on an essay to teach to the class. You will have ten-twenty minutes to lead a discussion or use any mode to discuss the essays. Each group member will do a 1-3 page essay discussing what s/he found compelling about the essay and how each group member contributed to the group process.  I expect real work done by EACH member of the group.
W  12/04  Group Presentations
F 12/06  Group Presentations
H 12/05  TBA
W 12/11   “”
  F12/13 Last day of semester.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Shelter Challenge

Dearest Students, Thanks for offering to help us out by voting for Cozy Cat Cottage (no comments, Patrick).

To do so go here:  http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3
Or you can google: Shelter Challenge 2012

The shelter is Cozy Cat Adoption Center and it's, of course, in Ohio.

Every browser you use is unique and you can vote every twelve hours. Any help you can give these guys would be wonderful.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Contemporary Lit. Syllabus Update

Week of 10/30
T 10/30  NY School discussion, Bukowski.
Homework:  Eula Bliss The Pain Scale (p. 2, Touchstone)
H 11/01 Discussion: The Lyric Essay through Bliss’ essay.
Homework:  Selected readings: Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell.
T 11/06   Eula Bliss Essay 
 Homework:
The Beats and  
(Intro and Howl and America)
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15308
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html
Ferlinghetti
Bio, Poems
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/367

 the Confessionalists
Read
Sylvia Plath's bio and all the poems on this site:
 http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/11  
This introduction to Confessional verse:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5650

Anne Sexton:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/14
Bio. and all of the poems
Robert Lowell:
The bio.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/10
and The Skunk Hour



H 11/08  Discussion continued
Homework:  Reading: Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, Michael Cunningham’s White Angel,
Poetry Comics article,
**Your ekphrastic pieces and process papers (500 words minimum) are due on Thursday 11/27. 
The short version of this assignment is that you will be responding or imitating a piece of literature through visual art. Examples abound: W.H. Auden’s Musee de Beaux Art or WCW’s Icarus (myth-painting-poem).  Or Charles Simic’s poems that respond to Joseph Cornell’s boxes (for the reverse).  Consider the poetry poem:  http://www.tcj.com/a-bianca-stone-interview/
http://www.poetrycomics.com/about/
Week of 11/13
T  11/13  TBA   I will be giving a reading at Florida Southern College (and representing CCAD)  Your class plans will be to take roll and watch the movies that I will have left for you.
H 11/15   TBA
Week of 11/20
T 11/20  Discussion. Beats and Confessionalists
H 11/22   THANKSGIVING BREAK!  Safe travels and happy Thanksgiving!
Week of 11/27
T  11/27    Discussion  and Ekphrastic pieces to be presented. Process papers (only) to be turned in to me.
H: BRING YOUR TOUCHSTONE ANTHOLOGIES TO CLASS. 
 Class work towards group presentations of Essays from Touchstone Anthology. First groups to let the rest of us know  (There will be an oral and written component for each group member.)  As a group: you will decide on an essay to teach to the class. You will have ten-twenty minutes to lead a discussion or use any mode to discuss the essays. Each group member will do a 1-3 page essay discussing what s/he found compelling about the essay and how each group member contributed to the group process.  I expect real work done by EACH member of the group.
H  11/29  Group Presentations
T 12/03  Group Presentations
H 12/05  TBA
T12/10    “”
H 12/12 Last day of semester.

Friday, November 2, 2012

FYI: Artists Workshop Saturday FREE for CCAD students!

CAA Workshop for Artists in Columbus
CAA, in partnership with Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD), will present its next National Professional-Development Workshop for Artists on Saturday, November 10, 2012. The one-day event, called “Art and Entrepreneurship in the Creative Community,” will explore the necessity of entrepreneurship coexisting with creativity for those artists who strive to have their work seen and heard by a larger public.
“Art and Entrepreneurship in the Creative Community” will take place from 8:00AM to 5:30PM. An open-studio reception for all participants for networking and sharing is scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30PM. The sessions take place at the Canzani Center on the CCAD campus at 60 Cleveland Avenue (at East Gay Street), Columbus, OH 43215. Registration is free for all CCAD students and faculty; $35 for all other participants.
8:00 AM
Check-in and complimentary breakfast
9:00 AM
Keynote address: “The Economic Value of the Creative Community,” Bill Strickland, Manchester Bidwell Corporation
10:00 AM
Choose one session: “Enhancing Your Creative Studio-Life in the Studio,” Rebecca Ibel, Pizzuti Collection; or “Enhancing Your Creative Design Practice – The New Entrepreneur,” Beverly Bethge, Ologie
12:00 PM
Lunch
1:00 PM
“Understanding the Value of Intellectual Property,” Jonathan Politi, Esq.
2:30 PM
“Management and Leadership-Take Charge Collaboration,” Elaine Grogan Luttrull, Minerva FinancialArts
3:30 PM
“Entrepreneurship – Taking Your Creativity to Market,” Kevin Gadd, Venture Highway
5:30 PM
Open-Studio Reception
Registration for the workshop is first-come, first-served. Because space is limited, CAA encourages you to register in advance. To pay by credit card, debit card, or PayPal, please go to www.collegeart.org/registercolumbusworkshop. A limited number of stipends are available for those who register in advance. Please contact Susan Schear, CAA national workshop project consultant, at 973-482-1000 for more information.
Visit the CAA website to learn more about the workshop and to register.
CAA’s National Professional Development Workshops for Artists, which focus on supporting visual artists in underserved areas, are sustained by a generous grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

Faculty and students can register with Susan Schear via email at susan.schear@artisin.com by providing their name, phone number and email (please use your official CCAD email account). Note in the email that you are a student or faculty member at CCAD. If you have any questions, you can contact Susan Schear at 973 482-1000. 

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Benjamin Anastas Make-Up Work

Select a piece from Todd Slaughter's American Primitives and discuss how it might suggest some of the principles of Emerson or Anastas. Remember to extend the conversation, by making your own observations.  200 words minimum


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Writing Fiction Update

As you all know, Tuesday marks the beginning of our next round. Group One will distribute on that day and we will go over the stories and give back our fully-developed notes and letters to the authors on that day. (Sound here of a throat being cleared) Won't we?

Also, I would like for you to have read and be ready to discuss (or have a quiz on) the following pieces:

On experimental prose or micro fictions:
Michael Martone's Contributor's Note
Review of Michael Martone's Project: Four for a Quarter.
The Russel Edson pieces here:  (All)

Also, please read (all of these titles can be found in the above link.
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
A Clean, Well-lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

Wednesday, October 10, 2012


Types of Meter

n poetry, a foot is a measure used when two or more beats get together in a recognizable pattern. Here are some of the most common:
  • Iamb: one-two
  • Trochee: one-two
  • Anapest: one-two-three
  • Dactyl: one-two-three
  • Spondee: one-two
There's a little poem I learned to remember the first four:
The iamb saunters through my book
Trochees rush and tumble
While the anapest runs like a hurrying brook
Dactyls are stately and classical
It takes a little more work to use a spondee, since you have to choose words that can't be unaccented in a line. For example, the phrase "dead weight," which generally can't be shortcutted to deadweight or deadweight but will be read dead... weight.

Meters

The one everyone knows the name of is Iambic Pentameter. Since "penta" means "five," this means "a line with five iambic feet." William Shakespeare was known for using this one in English free verse, which means the rhythm stayed pretty steady but there were few to no specific rhymes. Bear in mind, too, that just because you set out to write Iambic Pentameter (or any other meter) doesn't mean that you have to use an iamb as every single foot. Shakespeare certainly didn't! You can substitute a trochee at times, or a spondee for emphasis; you might even add some syllables to make one of the longer feet. The number of stressed beats per line, and the major pattern staying iambic, that's what makes Iambic Pentameter. But what you're aiming for is a line that sounds as if someone were actually talking - nothing forced or unnatural about it. That's what's really great about Iambic Pentameter: It sounds a lot like just regular ol' English. Now, as far as other meters: Just pick the number of feet you want. There are names for each (Tetrameter - four; Hexameter - six), but you don't need to worry about the names too much. Now, as far as common usage, a couple good ones are:
  • Four feet per line
  • Four feet the first line, three feet the next line
    • This one forms the basis of many hymns
  • Six feet per line
  • Six feet the first line, five feet the next line


















Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Contemporary Lit. Dates Clarified

1. Your formal poem assignment will now be due on Tuesday 10/16 and your Emerson project (see below) will be due on the 23rd.   Look over these forms:  sestina, sonnet, and villanelle, and begin to decide which you will imitate (and discuss in a 300 word minimum formal letter to your readers).  We will look over some examples for both components of this assignment.


2. EMERSON PROJECT: (Due 10/23) Using the writings of Emerson. Write a letter to the editor of an imaginary newspaper as an invented character responding to the work directly or the way the notions behind it or Rand (or I can even allow for Thoreau, if you’d like) are working for or against “you” (as your character). We’ll flesh out this idea more in class, but plan on a 500 word minimum where your “character” tells a bit about him/herself and how the ideas in one of those works or in other more recent writings have impacted him/her.  If you’re using another speech or text, make sure you provide the original or a source for it. Then, you will be inventing a second character, one with a very different or contrasting, even opposing viewpoint, to respond to your original character. (250 words or more) Have fun with this. Name your newspaper, your town, really try to imagine these lives. For inspiration, consider Lynch’s  Interview Project:  http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com/www/#/route

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Separate Post on Emerson Homework

Read the following sections in this link for The Fountainhead: Plot overview, context and themes and motifs.  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/fountainhead/context.html
As well as the essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  These readings will relate to two of our visitors: Todd Slaughter’s American Primitives show on Sept. 27 and author, Benjamin Anastas’ reading on Friday, Oct. 19th. Please plan to attend both.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

BOTTICELLIANS!

We will meet on Friday at 10:00 a.m. Starving Artist Cafe.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

American Lit.

Two of your classmates have brought it to my attention that, in anticipation of the release of The Hobbit, second breakfast will be taking place at 11:00 on Friday.  As I am a big fan of celebrating everything, I was quite easily persuaded that we should honor the event in class. I am inviting you to bring treats enough to share with the class, if you're able to do so. In any case, plan to help us toast (every pun intended!) this event sprung straight from American literature. (We're still reading Eliot and Stevens, so be prepared with the reading. You never know when a quiz might be lurking.)


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Writing Fiction: Here's the Link for the Comic

 The comic:

 http://drifting.smackjeeves.com/

and its companion blog:

http://driftingthewebcomic.tumblr.com/

Thanks, Alix for providing these and thanks, The-Rest-of-You for being so enthusiastic about seeing them. See you all soon!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Elie Wiesel Prize

Students, All Classes:

Please consider doing this. I would be happy to assist in any way that I can. (Literature classes, there is a chance we can use this for one of your essay assignments.)  I cannot say enough about how engaging in an application process alone begins to professionalize subsequent applications for employment, other fellowships and awards and the like.

http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/entercontest.aspx

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

American Lit. Syllabus




Columbus College of Art & Design prepares tomorrow's creative leaders for professional careers. With a history of commitment to fundamentals and quality, CCAD advances a distinct, challenging, and inclusive learning culture that supports individual development in art, design, and the humanities.
Course Information:
Faculty Information:

Catalog ID:  390  Section: 01   Term:  Fall 2012

Course Name:   Readings in American Literature

Course Prerequisite(s):

Meeting Day(s): W, F,   Meeting Time(s): 11-12:20

Class Location:  Crane 303


Faculty Name: Sophia Kartsonis

Phone: 614 437-7379

Email:

Office Hours: T,H, 11-12:30

Office Location:  KH201


Course Description: Involves critical study of selected readings from the Americas. Generally, the readings will be drawn from Euro-American, African American, and Native American works, and a wide range of periods and forms. Some sections may be sharply focused on a period, genre, or issue. Students will write essays and examinations. Emphasis and genre vary with professor.
Course Goals : To give students a broader sense of how an uniquely American literature emerged from the sum and interesting combinations of its various cultural components.  Through reading and writing, students can reflect upon what it means to become and create American literature.
Course Learning Outcomes: Through the critical examination of literary periods, styles and the factors of race, gender, faith, politics and culture, students will be able to think critically about how a culture and what it makes evolves.  Students should be able to communicate clearly both verbally and through writing about various features of American Literature.

This course is designed to help students develop in the following areas (check all that apply):
Think
Do
Reflect
Knowledge base X

Organizational skills x

Observation skills  x
Research skills X

Presentation skills x

Adaptive skills  x
Analytical skills X

Interaction skills x

Associative skills x
Reasoning skills X

Media skills

Empathy skills x
Ideation skills X

Response skills x

Feedback skills x
Iteration skills X

Mastery skills

Critique skills x

Required Course Materials:

Required Text(s): Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative NonFiction. Various handouts and links.

Recommended Text(s): Various.

Schedule of Classes (including key events including assignments, projects due dates/exam dates): See below

Methods/weights of Evaluation (this is a list of items that will be used as the basis for calculating students’ grades in the course, i.e., projects 30%, tests & quizzes, 30%, class participation 10%):

Course Grading Policies (this is a list of policies regarding due dates, late submissions, standards and expectation regarding work, etc.):

CCAD Academic Policies:
DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
ADA STATEMENT If you have a documented cognitive, physical, or psychological disability, which includes learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, anxiety, or mobility, as described by Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is recommended that you contact Disability Services at 614-222-3292. They will assist you in arranging appropriate accommodations with the instructor.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
ATTENDANCE POLICY

Students are required to attend all classes on their schedule. (see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
REQUESTING AN INCOMPLETE
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT
The college expects students to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the high ideals and standards that CCAD has set for its community and its students. (see the Student Handbook for complete policy)


Week of 08/28
T 08/28  Intro.   
H 08/30  Close reading of This is Just to Say and The Red Wheelbarrow WCW.

Week of 09/04
WCM discussion continued.  Read bio. and the following poems (Asphodel, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, and  Spring and All) on this site. Also, to the left margin, there is a string of essays discussing the poet and the period. Look to those for some ways to discuss and write about these issues. As we discussed in class, Imagism plays a part in Williams' treatment of subjects. We will talk about that in class a bit, but feel free to review the essay on Imagism.
F WCW video.

Week of 09/11
W Looking at what the American Literature timeline entails.  Considering what we think about when we think about American lit. (play off of contemporary American author: Raymond Carver’s story title.)  Discussion of and introduction to Walt Whitman.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdW1CjbCNxw

Homework:  Read all of the following:
Colonial overview:
Antebellum overview:
Antebellum literature:
Postbellum overview:
Postbellum Literature:

F:  Introduction to Modernism. Ezra Pound. T.S. Eliot. Wallace Stevens.
Homework:  Readings:  Ezra Pound, bio and poems  T.S. Eliot bio and the following poems:
The Wasteland and Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  They will likely feel a bit difficult, we'll discuss them in class, of course, but I will want you to read them first.
Also, really consider attending this. This is one of those incredible artists

Aurora Robson
multimedia artist  Wednesday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m.  Canzani Center Auditorium 
Aurora Robson is a multimedia artist known for her transformative use of plastic debris, excess packaging, and junk mail as artmaking material. A Canadian, Robson has lived and worked in New York City for the past 21 years. As a “subtle yet determined environmental activist” and advocate for plastic pollution awareness, she has exhibited all over the United States and Europe and is the founding artist of Project Vortex, an international collective of artists, designers and architects who also work with plastic debris. Her exhibition Sacrifice + Bliss is at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens from Sept. 9-April 28.
Visit her website, http://aurorarobson.com/
This program is free and open to the public. If you would like to support programs like this, please donate any amount online (choose the "exhibitions and visiting artists & scholars" option).

F Readings discussed.
Homework:  Your first assignment will involve an imitation piece  or series (500 word minimum) of the Modernists. The work can be in a variety of forms (essay, poetry, formal, etc.) as long as it meets the word count.   One way to tackle this might be to write a poem by the light of one of these pieces and then to write a short letter or essay piece that describes your process: how you worked from the imitation and how you worked away from or against it.   It will be due a week from today (09/20)
Read Wallace Stevens, bio. and all poems.  He might be very helpful for your imitations so read him early.

Week of 09/18
W Wallace Stevens.
F   Discussion and turn in of your Modernist pieces.
Homework:  Read the following sections in this link for The Fountainhead: Plot overview, context and themes and motifs.  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/fountainhead/context.html
As well as the essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  These readings will relate to two of our visitors: Todd Slaughter’s American Primitives show on Sept. 27 and author, Benjamin Anastas’ reading on Friday, Oct. 19th. Please plan to attend both.

Week of 09/25
W  Discussion: Emerson’s Self-Reliance

Todd Slaughter: American Primitives       Sept. 27–Nov. 8, 2012  Opening Reception: Sept. 27, 6–9 p.m.    Canzani Center Gallery    Free & Open to the Public

Over the last 12 years Todd Slaughter’s artwork has addressed the perception that safety is synonymous with isolation and privilege in the gated communities of suburbia and urban high-rises. This specific aspect of American identity is but one point on a trajectory that, in the end, lands in the darkest of places. Through a series of sculptural tableaux, American Primitives points out parallels between the American individualism defined by Thoreau and Emerson and its evil twin, isolationist groups who feel that they, too, are manifesting core American values.
Slaughter is a former CCAD faculty member who is currently a professor at Ohio State University. His work has been given a major retrospective at the Chicago Cultural Center, as well as exhibitions in numerous galleries and museums. Permanent public works can be found in the Midway Airport, Chicago, and Tarifa/Algeciras, Spain.
Homework:  (This assignment will be due on 10/16)  Using the writings of Emerson. Write a letter to the editor of an imaginary newspaper as an invented character responding to the work directly or the way the notions behind it or Rand (or I can even allow for Thoreau, if you’d like) are working for or against “you” (as your character). We’ll flesh out this idea more in class, but plan on a 500 word minimum where your “character” tells a bit about him/herself and how the ideas in one of those works or in other more recent writings have impacted him/her.  If you’re using another speech or text, make sure you provide the original or a source for it. Then, you will be inventing a second character, one with a very different or contrasting, even opposing viewpoint, to respond to your original character. (250 words or more) Have fun with this. Name your newspaper, your town, really try to imagine these lives. For inspiration, consider Lynch’s  Interview Project:  http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com/www/#/route
Week of 10/02
W  Formal Poetry:  Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Robert Hayden
Homework: Readings: Frost, Hughes, Bishop, Moore.
 Look over these forms:  sestina, sonnet, and villanelle, and begin to decide which you will imitate (and discuss in a 300 word minimum formal letter to your readers).  We will look over some examples for both components of this assignment: due 10/11.
Read:  Girl by Jamaica Kinkaid http://www.fphil.uniba.sk/fileadmin/user_upload/editors/kaa/Ivan_Lacko/Kincaid_Girl.pdfand Everyday Use by Alice Walker. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/walker.html
Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

 (Walker & Kinkaid to be discussed Thurs. and Carver and Hemingway a week from today.
F Discussion Walker & Kinkaid.

Week of 10/09
W  Discussion Carver & Hemingway
Homework:  Read William Harrison’s Present Tense Africa from your Touchstone Anthology p.220
F Discussion Harrison.  Formal poems due today.
Homework:  Read Allan Ginsberg bio and all poems. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8
And this on The Beat Poets:  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646
and contemporary American poet, Eliot Khalil Wilson’s response to Ginsberg (at the end of this document.)

Week of 10/16
Letters to the editor due.
(Review Emerson, if need be.)
F Discussion Anastas.
Visiting artist/author:
Benjamin Anastas   author
Friday, Oct. 19, 6:30 p.m.    Canzani Center Auditorium 
Benjamin Anastas is the author of two highly regarded novels, and his memoir,Too Good to Be True, will be published in fall 2012. His short fiction has been published in The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and GQ, while his criticism and essays have appeared regularly in Bookforum, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, and The New York Observer. Anastas’ essay "The Foul Reign of Emerson's 'Self-Reliance,'" first published in The New York Times Magazine, appears in the exhibition catalog for American Primitives and will be included inThe Best American Essays 2012.

Week of 10/23
NY School Readings.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XKN0iZG_4s Don Draper reads Frank O’Hara
Discussion
Homework: Charles Bukowski readings
At your leisure:
http://bukowski.net/poems/

Week of 10/30
NY School discussion, Bukowski.
Homework:  Eula Bliss The Pain Scale (p. 2, Touchstone)
F Discussion: The Lyric Essay through Bliss’ essay.
Homework:  Selected readings: Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell.

Week of 11/05
W   The Confessionalists
F  Discussion continued
Homework:  Reading: Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, Michael Cunningham’s White Angel,
Poetry Comics article,
**Your ekphrastic pieces and process papers (500 words minimum) are due on Tuesday 11/20. 
The short version of this assignment is that you will be responding or imitating a piece of literature through visual art. Examples abound: W.H. Auden’s Musee de Beaux Art or WCW’s Icarus (myth-painting-poem).  Or Charles Simic’s poems that respond to Joseph Cornell’s boxes (for the reverse).  Consider the poetry poem:  http://www.tcj.com/a-bianca-stone-interview/

Week of 11/13
W TBA   I will be giving a reading at Florida Southern College (and representing CCAD)  Your class plans are forthcoming.
F   TBA

Week of 11/20
W  THANKSGIVING BREAK!
F   THANKSGIVING BREAK!  Safe travels and happy Thanksgiving!

Week of 11/27
Group Presentations of Essays from Touchstone Anthology. (There will be an oral and written component for each group member. More details forthcoming.)
F Group Presentations continued

Week of 12/03
W  Group Presentations
F  TBA

Week of 12/10
W   “”
F Last day of semester.

Ginsberg’s Ghost: Atlantic City 

By Eliot Khalil WIlson
Ms America you’ve given everything and now you’re nothing.
5’4”, 143 pounds, size fourteen dress, April 1, 2001.
Ms. America when will you stop wobbling and wear human shoes?
When will you fail to be eerily pleasant?
When will you stop having your breasts stuffed with sandwich bags of carcinogens?
Ms America you made me want to be Pamela Anderson.
Ms. America when will you keep your clothes on?
When will you stoop to help the three stooped women on the 100-rupee note?
Ms America when will you send your Spode and silver to a random address in Cuba?
When will you say that it doesn’t happen to every man and it is a big deal?
Aren’t you tired of being mostly hair, bleached teeth, and padding.
When will you stop aspiring to be an assemblage of gleaming cleavages?
Ms. America when will you rule your own womb?
When will you stop being sweet to the point of translucence?
When will you be demonic? When will you refuse to be interrupted?
Ms. America are you an unconscious victim only?
When you will admit that you’ve been interpellated by Friends ?
I love Friends. Everyone so perky. I watch it every chance I get.
Ross’s monkey has vanished.  It’s sinister.

When will you say I want and Fuck this and Fuck that ?
Ms America when will you be Mr. President?
When will you end this absurdly Pyrrhic war on drugs?
Ms America when can we vote Texas off the island?
When will you blaze up and tell us that George W. Bush never happened?
He’s embarrassing. I’m getting nostalgic for Richard Nixon, 
From now on, Je suis Canadian.
When will you stop letting your emotional life be run by Cosmo magazine?
Are you a fun fearless female with flirty moves that floor him?
Do you know seven scorching sex tricks that make him ga-ga?
Ms. America come talk to me.

It occurs to me that I am Ms America.
I am talking to myself again, and I miss my real lips.
I have to be orange. 
My spirit feels overweight.
I need to learn to eat like the other mannequins
Don’t speak to me. I’m having a beauty crisis.
I lash out with mascara now.
I can’t go anywhere like this. I’m stooped and hairy.
I need a billboard’s posture, emergency electrolysis.
Who will vacuum the fat out of my body?
This is all entirely too perverted and obscene for me.
Ms. America, I’d rather be dead.