Tell Me Something Real: How to Write Confessional Poetry | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop

What makes a poem confessional?

Is it how the poem is arranged? The nature of its content? The way the poet uses metaphor or voice? Or something else entirely?

Black American literature has always explored race. It has always explored bondage and freedom. And while the literature has also always offered a glimpse into the intimate lives of Black people beyond racist tropes, the details that might make a reader blush were not commonplace until the 1970s, when confessional poetry became a recognized concept.

Tell Me Something Real: How to Write Confessional Poetry is designed for writers interested in making their own work more personal—whether that personal is autobiographical, fictional, or somewhere in between—and for writers who are interested in creating believable characters. Although students should have a basic understanding of poetry (including poetic elements and how to write a poem), this course is open to beginners with and without experience writing poetry, and for the more advanced student interested in an introduction to confessional poetry.

Students will engage with work written by Black female poets from the 1970s to present day. We will cover work from writers such as Rita Dove, Natasha Trethewey, and Morgan Parker, along with work from other noted and lesser-known women. We will discuss what makes the chosen work confessional, why such confession matters, and how poetic elements such as voice, figures of speech, and imagery are used to achieve confession.

Discussion will be broken up with in-class writing exercises that focus on imitating or recreating elements and attributes discovered in our discussion.

4 class sessions
Mondays, Oct. 27-Nov. 17
8p-10p ET
5p-7p PT
7p-9p CT

All class meetings will be held via Zoom. For more information on how to download or use Zoom, please click here.