Poetry Workshop: The Persona Poem
Week 6 | M, Tu, W, Th, F | CLA Alumni Hall Poetry Room | Ages 18 and up
This workshop will explore the persona poem, a work in which the writer speaks through an assumed voice, often from history, recent or ancient. With roots in the dramatic monologue, the persona poem privileges voice and often presupposes an audience. We will read exceptional persona poems to learn how effective they can be as tools to engage perspectives, times, and places beyond our own. We’ll try our hand at writing persona poems, considering the questions and visions that emerge through our work. Flexible. (Ages 18+)
Class Times
Danielle Legros Georges is the former Poet Laureate of Boston; a professor of creative writing at Lesley University; the creative editor of sx salon, a digital forum for explorations of Caribbean literature; and a contributing editor to the literary magazines Salamander and Consequence Forum. Her most recent books are Island Heart, translations of the poems of 20th-century Haitian-French writer Ida Faubert (Subpress Books, 2021) and The Dear Remote Nearness of You (Barrow Street, 2016). Her literary awards include fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MASS MoCA, the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium.
