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Poetry Workshop and Reading with Grant Matthew Jenkins and Lewis Freedman

  • 325 E Main Street Norman, OK, 73069 United States (map)

Jon us for an afternoon and evening of poetry courtesy of two of Oklahoma’s finest.

Grant Matthew Jenkins lives in Tulsa with his four kids and two cats. He teaches contemporary literature, theory, and creative writing at the University of Tulsa. He has published three books of poetry: Contingencies of the Bourgeoisie (Blazevox, 2023), Joy of God and Other Series (Blackbird, 2003), and Morphs (Cracked Slab, 2009), written in collaboration with Cheryl Pallant, His workshop offering is entitled Improvisational Writing.

“First thought, best thought.” That was the maxim that Allen Ginsberg used to encapsulate the kind of ‘spontaneous prose’ that Beat writers like he and Jack Kerouac were doing, inspired by the improvisatory be-bop jazz prevalent during the 1950s. By turning off our judgmental, editorial mind and trusting ourselves, we can tap into the deep well of unconscious knowledge, emotions, and drives that can generate and regenerate our writing.  In this workshop, we will practice improvisational writing using keyboard devices and timed procedures. The goal is to break your ‘backspace’ habit, incorporate accidents, and unlock your creativity. 

Lewis Freedman is the author of Residual Synonyms for the Name of God and I Want Something Other Than Time (both from Ugly Duckling Press) as well as many chapbooks of poetry, including Am Perhaps Yet (Oxeye). In addition, he has authored several experiments on the form of the book including Solitude: The Complete Games (Troll Thread), a collaboration with Kevin Rydberg that will take several years for your computer to read, and the book within a book, Hold the Blue Orb, Baby (Well-Greased Press) which interleaves notebook facsimiles with poems on the practice of notebooking. He has taught creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oklahoma State University, and served as Visiting Writer-in-Residence at Carthage College. His workshop offering is entitled Writing Poetry and Other Texts.

In this workshop we'll explore methods for composing poems by borrowing and rearranging the language of other existent texts. In doing so we'll experience and question how methods of textual collage can embellish (rather than diminish) the self-expressive experience of poetic composition. 

The workshops will start at 2:00 and run through the afternoon. The Poetry Reading will begin at 6:30. There will be a break between each of the offerings.

Sponsored by the OU english Department’s Mark Allen Everett Poetry Series Free to the public. Everybody welcome.

Earlier Event: July 14
Example Green : Sphere of Influence
Later Event: July 29
Bookbinding Workshop