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