“Stealth Formalism”: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Formal Verse
Instructor: Nicole Caruso Garcia
Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Time: 6:00-8:00pm (Eastern)
Price: $25 (payment options – Stripe / PayPal / Venmo / CashApp)
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Overview
“Stealth Formalism”: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Formal Verse
How do the most skilled formalists of today craft poems that sound fresh and contemporary, poems that read as naturally as free verse? Some poets are such ninjas of sound and sense that readers might reach the end of a sonnet before even realizing it is a sonnet. On the other hand, formal poems can be proficient and technically correct, yet still sound forced, archaic, stilted, or unintentionally humorous. Bad poetry, oh noetry! In this workshop, we will explore examples to demystify the common pitfalls of formal verse, learning techniques for leaping over them and onto the solid footing of effective poems. (Participants may wish to bring a poem draft “just in case” there’s time to review a few as samples for future revision.)
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About The Workshop Leader
Nicole Caruso Garcia’s full-length debut OXBLOOD (Able Muse Press) recently received the International Book Award for narrative poetry. Her work appears in Best New Poets, Light, Mezzo Cammin, ONE ART, Plume, Rattle, RHINO, and elsewhere. She serves as associate poetry editor at Able Muse and as an executive board member at Poetry by the Sea, an annual poetry conference in Madison, CT. Visit her at nicolecarusogarcia.com.
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