Writing and Workshopping Poetry: A Constructive Introduction

by Stephen Guppy

Most texts on creative writing emphasize either sources of inspiration or strategies for editing. The process of getting from initial inspiration to final draft isn’t often dealt with in any practical way. Writing and Workshopping Poetry focuses on all three phases of the process of finding the material; building and developing the poem from rough draft to complete work; editing and refining. The text offers everything students and instructors extensive notes written in an accessible, conversational style; seventy-five writing exercises; and about a hundred poems chosen from a wide range of sources, from sixteenth-century sonnets to experimental constrained forms, with an emphasis on exciting poems by contemporary American and Canadian poets. Each chapter concludes with a brief, point-form summary of major learning objectives as well as a review list of useful terms.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2016

Reviews

[Vivian Darkbloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly helpful. I would've liked a more robust discussion of workshopping.

[Harrison Vig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost never rate textbooks, but this one is different. Now I don’t think it is the perfect guide to all poetry, I don’t think it’s trying to be that. Poetry can be hard to get into. That is there is a sense of intentionality and attention to detail that is more or less absent from prose. There are lots of tools in poetry, chiasmus anaphora and all that jazz. This is a great place to start developing this type of knowledge. Ideally you’ll read this and seek out more, but even this alone provides an understandable and generally comprehensive view of the building blocks of poetry.

[Abigail Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for poets! Stephen Guppy does an excellent job organizing the chapters to better learn about poetry forms and provide examples. The exercises are also helpful in improving one’s poetry.

[Alicia Zuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book because it was a totally different approach to learning about the craft of poetry than the many I’ve read so far. I don’t think it would be good for a new writer but definitely appropriate for someone who has studied writing for some time. A different spin on the subject and offers many ways not yet explored for inspiration and shape of poetry. I’ll def be keeping it for reference. The only thing I would suggest is to have sample exercise responses but even without perfection, it was perfect:)

[Alfred B · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good book

[summer (oscar wilde’s version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

good examples and good prompts. shoutout my poetry professor assigning this