Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Writing exercise with Professor Amy Lemmon
Professor Lemmon conducted a writing exercise today on etymology. We visited the reference section of the library (on the fourth floor) and randomly chose six words out of the many volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary. We wrote down the different roots of the word, definitions, etc. to later use in a poem. Professor Lemmon used etymology in her poem “Deciding on Quandary.” (Please email her if you would like a copy.) She recommended we try writing a sestina with the six words we each chose. Click here for information on how to write a sestina, or try this sestina generator. Post your results to the blog!

Community service
I will be stopping by Student Life later this week to pick up some community service forms. If you’re interested in helping out, email me and I will send you a copy.

Guest speaker Lee Gutkind on November 11
“The Godfather behind Creative nonfiction,” Lee Gutkind, will be coming to FIT next week. He will be speaking to the club on Tuesday, November 11 from 1-2 in room D504. If you would like more information, visit his website. Please come prepared with a few questions for either him or the genre of creative nonfiction. Hope to see you all there!

Sunday, October 26, 2008


Bake Sale
Tuesday, October 28th
12-2pm
D-buliding lobby

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Meeting 10/16

Highlights from today's meeting:

  • Bake Sale - October 28th from 12-2 in the D lobby
    -Halloween theme!
    -We need volunteers to bake and to work the table from 12-1 or 1-2
  • Community Service
    -Community Word Project on a Saturday in December
    -Email me if interested in doing an individual service
  • Campus Blood Drive - November 13th from 10am-7pm in the Great Hall
    -Make sure to sign in!
  • Job Fair 2008 - October 21st from 11am-2:30pm in the Great Hall
  • Open Mic for Substance Abuse Awareness Week - October 21st from 6-8pm in the 5th Floor Lounge
    -$50 gift cards raffled to all participants
    -Email ashley_maine@fitnyc.edu if interested
  • Possible field trips
    -Bowery Poetry Club slam for college students in December
    -louderARTS slams on Mondays at 7pm

We ended the meeting today with a writing workshop. Thanks to all of those who brought/sent work!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

First meeting 9/23

Welcome, members new and old!

I just wanted to restate some of the things we went over at our first meeting today.

  • We started off with a short writing activity about the origin of our names. After, we went around the room and introduced ourselves and the genres of writing we like.
  • FIT Words uses the following points system:
    • Attending a meeting - 5
    • Suggestions - 5
    • Attending a guest speaker - 10
    • Baking/preparing for an event - 10
    • Helping out at an event - 10
    • Participating in community service - 15
    • Holding an officer position - 40
  • We communicate mostly through email, but please check this blog for re-caps and event notices.
  • Our club will schedule a bake sale as our fundraiser at some point during the semester.
  • We discussed a few possible community service ideas and listed the breast cancer or Light the Night walks, or helping at the Community Word Project (if available). If you have any other ideas, please let us know.
  • The floor was opened for possible guest speakers, activities, and events. Almost all members showed a strong interest in poetry and a few were interested in screenwriting. Colin Gilbert (myspace.com/colinrgilbert) was also recommended and may be in NY in November. Thanks for the great feedback!

Our next meeting will most likely be a writing workshop, so start thinking of a piece you would like to bring in. I will let you know as soon as we pick a date.

See you soon,

-CK

Thursday, September 18, 2008

two full green hours--TONIGHT!

In case you're in NYC and looking for something to do...

You’re Invited to a Poetry Book Party

Come Celebrate This Full Green Hour: An Anthology by the One O’Clock Poets

GUILLERMO CASTRO
AMY LEMMON
KATRINKA MOORE
JOAN LAURI POOLE
ELIZABETH POREBA
SARAH STERN

Thursday, September 18, 2008

7:00-9:00 p.m.

Teachers and Writers Collaborative
520 Eighth Avenue (between 36th and 37th Streets), Suite 2020, New York City
For directions please visit: www.twc.org/events.


This Full Green Hour, published by Sonopo Press, will be available for purchase.
Light refreshments will be served.

***

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THIS FULL GREEN HOUR

“The poems of Castro, Lemmon, Moore, Poole, Poreba, and Stern riff off one another most delightfully through subject matter and syntax. These Magnificent Six have accomplished something amazing—a dynamic and tangential conversation through poems, each voice intelligent, nuanced, distinct.”
—Denise Duhamel

“A disarmingly playful spirit of generous camaraderie is at the heart of this anthology. Boldly, it intersperses the work of six distinctive poets in such a way that we not only get to know the individual voices, but are also let in on their poetic conversation…. This hour is indeed a full one.”
—Elaine Equi

“These six poets lead the reader to moments of delicious tension and exhilarating discoveries.”
—Scott Hightower

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Welcome back!

So far, the club has attended two Student Council meetings over the past two weeks. Important highlights are included below.

Student Council meeting notes – September 9, 2008

· As a reminder, one representative from the club must be present at each meeting or our budget will be reduced.
· Nominations for different committees were discussed and will be voted on next week. If you're interested in any of the student/faculty committees, email me for a complete list and contact info ASAP.
· There's a SVCS volunteer expo Thursday, September 11 from 12-2 between A&B buildings. If you're around on this day, please stop by for a few minutes and pick up some info for the club so we're not scrambling at the last minute for our mandatory community service.
· Flea markets will be discussed more next week but the first will be 9/25. Three clubs will be chosen at random to be included. Cross your fingers for the next round!
· Finally, the Club Carnival is next Thursday, 9/18 from 12-2 between A&B buildings. Please let me know if you'll be around at all on that day, even if it’s not the whole time.

Student Council meeting notes – September 16, 2008

· There is a Club Contract that needs to be signed and returned to FITSA by Friday, September 26, 2008 or funds will be frozen. The club keeps the pink copy and the yellow and white copies can be placed in Victoria Columb/Secretary of the Executive Board’s mailbox in Student Life
· Words was not included in the flea market drawing for this semester.
· Membership cards were given out and need to be presented at student council meetings for attendance.
· The new FITSA website is fitsanyc.com
· There is a Breast Cancer walk on October 19th. If the club is interested in this as a possible community service activity, see Deborah in Student Life. Four club members must participate.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Assignments

I hope you all enjoyed our guest speaker today, Ada Limon. We got to hear about her job at GQ and a little bit of her poetry (including some new stuff).

And because you don't have enough going on right now with finals and projects, I'm assigning you homework. Well, Ada assigned it, but I think we should all attempt both of these. (I'll be nice and not give you a due date.)

1. Do a letter poem (or essay)
Pick someone that you've never met but want to reach - a deceased family member, famous person - and write them a letter. Within it you have to do three things:
1.) use the lyrics of a song
2.) use one word or phrase from another language
3.) give the writer (yourself) a nickname so that it's not you
Ada said she did this one twice and got completely different poems out of it.

2. Find a piece of writing in a voice completely unlike your own. Ada assigned this for her MFA students at Columbia and people brought in medical papers and NY Times financial pages. Then, try to mimic everything about that writing - the grammar, language, etc.

Let us know what you come up with!

Also, thank you to everyone who donated cans. Nisha or I will drop them off next Wednesday at City Harvest.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

City Harvest Food Drive

For our community service project this semester, FIT Words will be doing a canned food drive for City Harvest.

They're in need of instant formula, baby food, pasta, rice, whole grain cereal, canned vegetables, canned fruit, canned beans, canned protein (like tuna), and canned or carton long shelf-life milk products, but anything you can donate will be greatly appreciated.

Please bring these items with you on Thursday, May 8 from 1-2pm in D504.

Thanks for helping out!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

FIT Words

The Club for Writers
PRESENTS

Scott Hightower

Poet and Nonfiction Writer

"Finding the Heart of your Writing: A Workshop"
Thursday, May 15, 1-2pm
English and Speech Department Conference Room

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/925

For more information email
Amy_Lemmon@fitnyc.edu

FIT Words
The Club for Writers
PRESENTS

Ada Limón


Poet and Copy Director of GQ Magazine

"Poetry and Publishing: Balancing Creativity and Commerce"
Thursday, May 8, 1-2pm
Location: Room D504

Visit her website: http://adalimon.blogspot.com/

For more information email Amy_Lemmon@fitnyc.edu

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Guest speakers for May

A big thank you to everyone who attended Carly Sachs' reading today.
A quick recap for those of you who couldn't make it:
She encouraged us to write for about five minutes about a difficult subject (a theme in both of her books). I think we all had different responses to what we wrote. Our "homework" is to revisit this piece and play with cut-ups, spacing, and fragmentation, devices she uses and are particularly helpful in dealing with these types of topics.
She then read poetry from her book, the steam sequence, and from the anthology she edited, the why and later, both of which were very moving. She was kind enough to give each of us a copy of these books.

Next week, Ada Limon will be speaking from 1-2 in D504 (right outside the library).

The following week, May 15th, Scott Hightower will be visiting from 1-2 in the English and Speech conference room in B602.

Stay tuned for information about our very last-minute community service project for the semester.

xx
CK

Thursday, April 3, 2008

our Writer-in-Residence!!

We are delighted to present two campus-wide events by fabulous poet and novelist Kim Addonizio!

Poetry Reading: Tuesday, April 8, 1-2 p.m.

Fiction Reading: Thursday, April 10, 5-6 p.m.
Location: The Lounge, A Building 5th Floor

Visit Kim's website for a preview of her work.
Her books will be for sale at the readings, too!

There will also be a special workshop just for club members (including new members--care to join us?) on Thursday, April 10 from 1-2 p.m. in Room D504 (our club room).

SEE YOU THERE!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Professor Lemmon's poems were featured on the webzine No Tell Motel.

Here's the link to the site:
http://notellmotel.org/

Friday, February 29, 2008

Welcome back!

We have a lot of great things planned for this semester and I'm so excited to get started!

One of the things we mentioned at the last meeting was communication. We have a club page on the MyFIT website. To access it, log in to MyFIT and click the "groups" logo on the upper-right side of the page. You can either search for the club by name or find it listed under the Group Index/Artistic. The group is public and you should have no trouble joining (we even had some people join that I didn't know about!)

Let me know if you have any problems..

-CK

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Springing Into Spring: Let's get started!

Our first club meeting of the semester is Thursday, February 28, from 1-2 p.m. in Room D504.

We'll be finalizing the new officers and making plans for the semester.

Please email Prof. Lemmon to confirm whether or not you will be joining us!