Writing Workshops

A List Is a Letter: Techniques for Creating the Catalog Poem with Jessie McCarty (February 2024)

$150

2 Sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 12:00 pm EDT - 3:00 pm EDT February 10 to February 11, 2024

Online via Zoom

Registration for this course is closed.

This writing course will consider how lists, order, and memory function in poetry. We’ll seek to inquire, interrogate, and build an understanding of writing the “catalog poem.”

Writers will consider modes of listing—this ranging from the diary, to-do lists, planners, archives, and even personal receipts to capture narrative, structure, and reflection in their poetry practice. Writers will be encouraged to keep a list of notes throughout the course to share with the class, along with current reading lists, aspirations, and references. We will workshop students’ pieces and give each other written and oral feedback. We will read aloud poem from George Perec, Moyra Davey, Susan Howe, and Ca Conrad and more to answer the question, Is this poem a catalog? Is this list a poem?

Reading and video materials will be given before the course.

Course Outline

Session I: Introductions to Lists
- A. Critical Cataloging and Subject Headings (On Emily Drabinski, Cataloging Structures, Group Collaboration)
  Writing Discussion + Excersise
- B. What is a Catalog? What is a List? (On Susan Howe, Georges Perec)
Session II: Making the List Personal:
- A. Discussions on Personal Diary and the Research Process (On Moyra Davey, Agnes Varda, Chen Chen)
  Assignments: Alice Munro’s “Fiction” and Kevin Moffett’s “Buzzers” + Writing Assignment 1.

Led by

Jessie McCarty

Jessie McCarty

Jessie McCarty (they/them) is an interdisciplinary writer and cataloger specializing in Irish, Southern, and LBGTQ+ folklore through new media and poetry. They are the author of The Bovine Huff, a research chapbook on The Shreveport Yellow Fever Mound in Shreveport, Louisiana and Ireland/Eire’s Tain Bo Cuailnge. The Bovine Huff was awarded the 3rd Best Poetry Book of 2022 in the Chicago Reader. In August 2023, McCarty co-authored the poetry collection Our Fairy Diary with multi-media artist Sarah Haines. This artbook of letters, written between Chicago and Shreveport, functioned as a study in fairy rings as a limited edition of 50. As of September 2023, Our Fairy Diary is sold out.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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