We'll be devoting special attention to the turn – how a text conveys, embodies, and enacts a shift in perception or state of mind. A turn can register a moment of learning or insight. As always, our discussions of craft invite you to explore connections with your own work.
A poem or essay might swerve in its tone, syntax, terms of address, tense, diction; the change may be subtle or tectonic.
The Volta is perhaps the most celebrated of all turns. Phillis Levin, in The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, writes, "We could say that for the sonnet, the volta is the seat of its soul," and she refers the volta as “the 'turn' that introduces into the poem a possibility for transformation, like a moment of grace."
Annie Finch, in A Poet’s Craft, asks, How does the poem shape itself so that, when one has finished reading, one feels the poem is over, that something has happened, that something has changed?"
Participants will receive access to a google drive folder of readings, prompts, and craft resources.
