Richter, Jenniferby adminPoetry, children's literature Project 1: "Song of Myself": A Week of Poetry and Personalities Walt Whitman’s famous poem begins, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself….” This project will be a week-long celebration of the self in writing. We will discuss inspiring, published work, and I will guide the students in related writing exercises such as: Write about one of your scars; Write about the meaning/significance of your first name; What element of nature do you most resemble? Students will finish the week more confident in their writing abilities and in themselves; poetry will provide them with new ways of knowing and understanding themselves and their classmates. About Jennifer: Jennifer Richter is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University. She earned her M.F.A. at Penn State University. Her poems have appeared in many national publications, including Poetry, Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, and A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-five Years of Women's Poetry, published by CALYX Books. Jennifer has been leading poetry workshops for the past 16 years, first at Penn State, then in the Bay area, and, finally, here in Oregon. She taught at Stanford University, Stanford's Continuing Studies Program, and at Oregon State University. She taught a poetry workshop for recovering substance abusers at the Delancy Street Foundation in San Francisco, to grades K-12 for California Poets in the Schools, Community of Writers, and Ashbrook Independent School in Corvallis. |
