There was a great efflorescence of women poets in the 20th century,
Mairead, almost none of whom had anything to do with writing
programs, which are with very few exceptions only a couple of decades
old (as is their dominance), or pubs, for that matter.
Mark
At 08:56 PM 8/10/2009, you wrote:
>Come to think of it, Blake shouldn't have bothered his barney going
>to art school either. But then poetry isn't an art or a craft or a
>skill or a trade (what the heck is it...?). No, the pub is the only
>writing workshop we need boys. Who on earth would want a more
>structured approach to the whole thing? Women with children? As if
>they can write poetry ....let them do pottery. Which is an art and
>a craft and a skill and a trade, unlike poetry.
>Mairead
>
>On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 7:31 PM, Carrie Etter
><<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Some of these comments about workshops sound like they're based more
>on supposition and hearsay than numerous, varied experiences. Ulli
>Freer used to--does he still?--run a workshop at Birkbeck which I
>heard was anything but dictatorial and didactic, and I've got to say
>the workshops I run at Bath Spa do anything but espouse convention
>and conformity (which could be didactic in itself, if you consider
>the general initiative toward originality to be didactic). Different
>instructors have different approaches, of course, and I despise the
>general category referred to earlier as "domestic realism" (which I
>find still painfully rampant), but I don't think the workshop itself
>is at fault so much as individual instructors' attitudes toward their purpose.
>
>
>
>Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:28:52 +0100
>From: Jeffrey Side <<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Found a good article called 'POETRY SCENE: CURRENT DIFFICULTIES'
>
>Tim, needless to say I agree with you. I find that workshops tend to be r=
>un by=20
>poetic dictators who are more concerned with peddling their own ideas of=20=
>
>what a poem is than trying to facilitate genuine curiosity in the people=20=
>
>they "teach". It is this didactical element that I find disturbing, and e=
>xplains=20
>why (as you say) workshops have had such a big influence on poetry in=20
>Britain.=20
>
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