Dear Friend,
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and I wish you a happy New Year in 2022. Let's hope for better days ahead. We're all entitled!
Thanks to everyone who has already obtained a copy of my new craft book, The Strategic Poet. If you don't yet have it, it is, of course, still available. Give yourself the gift of lots of ideas for new writing in the year ahead.
See the sample Bonus Prompts below.
FYI--Terrapin Books will open for submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts on January 24 and will remain open thru February 28. Please note that we publish only poets living in the US. Check our Guidelines and our FAQs. Then send us something wonderful.
Diane Lockward
Ebook and Print book Both Available from
Amazon
Sample Bonus Prompts from The Strategic Poet
Each of the book's 13 sections ends with 3 Bonus Prompts. These focus on the specific strategy of the section. They have the twin benefits of being short and recyclable. I solicited these prompts from outstanding poets who are also outstanding teachers.
Section VIII focuses on Personification. The Bonus Prompt poet for that section is Kerrin McCadden, a high school English teacher in New Hampshire and Associate Director of The Frost Place.
Your Word Bank Comes Alive
Build a ten-word word bank according to this formula: a place name (a park, a neighborhood, a city, town, or country), an insect, a weather term/event, a tool, a geographical feature, a period or event in history, a term that has to do with furniture, and three words you like the sound of. Now, write a poem in the voice of an object you care deeply about. Let the object tell its story, or talk about you, make complaints, pontificate, or muse—but you must include all the words from your word bank. In a final draft, you might kick these words out of your poem, but their job is to push your imagination into sparking through the act of weighing what you love against words you might struggle to use.
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Section XII focuses on the Sonnet. Poet Jeffrey Bean provides three delightful prompts for this form. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Central Michigan University.
Animal in an Invented Sonnet
Write a sonnet about an animal. Don’t choose a traditional sonnet form—instead, devise your own fourteen-line rhyme scheme. Feel free to use meter or abandon it. Either way, use concrete imagery to bring the animal to life. What colors, smells, textures does it evoke? Try to engage all five senses and use sound and syntax to embody this animal’s movements, the noises it makes, how it feels to touch it or look at it or stand in its presence.
Video
New Craft Book
Named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers
Reader Comments:
"An essential book for anyone interested in the craft and art of poetry." (jdk)
"It's a book for every lover and teacher of poetry. I highly recommend it." (GD)
"A book that will never make it to the bookshelf because I'll refer to it so often. This book should be at the top of every poet's wishlist." (NB)
"The latest, and best, of editor Diane Lockward's series of excellent craft books. Carefully organized, clear, and chock full of wonderful example poems, craft essays, & prompts. Any poet can find something inspirational here." (DG)
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The book is organized into thirteen sections, each devoted to a poetry strategy:
I. Descriptive Details
II. Diction
III. Imagery
IV. Sound Devices
V. Repetition
VI. Figurative Language: Simile
VII. Figurative Language: Metaphor
VIII. Figurative Language: Personification
IX. Figurative Language: Hyperbole
X. Figurative Language: Apostrophe
XI. Syntax
XII. Sonnet
XIII. Odd Forms
114 fabulous poets contributed to this book, poets such as Ellen Bass, Jan Beatty, Diane Seuss, Dean Young, and George Bilgere. The book includes Craft Talks, Model Poems, Commentaries, and Prompts. It is suitable for use by poets working independently, by poets in writing groups, and by teachers in the classroom.
Previous Craft Books
Named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers
Organized into ten sections, each devoted to a poetic concept. Begins with "Discovering New Material," "Finding the Best Words," "Making Music," "Working with Sentences and Line Breaks," "Crafting Surprise," and "Achieving Tone." The concepts become progressively more sophisticated, moving on to "Dealing with Feelings," "Transforming Your Poems," and "Rethinking and Revising." The final section, "Publishing Your Book," covers manuscript organization, book promotion, and presentation of a good public reading. The book includes thirty brief craft essays, each followed by a model poem, analysis of the poem's craft, and a prompt based on the poem. Ten recyclable bonus prompts also included. Ten Top Tips lists are each loaded with poetry wisdom from an accomplished poet.
(click cover for Amazon)
Named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers
All ten sections include three craft tips, each provided by an experienced, accomplished poet. Each of these thirty craft tips is followed by a Model poem and a Prompt based on the poem. Each model poem is used as a mentor, again expressing the underlying philosophy of the first book that the best teacher of poetry is a good poem. Each section includes a Poet on the Poem Q&A about the craft elements in one of the featured poet's poems. Each section concludes with a Bonus Prompt, each of which provides a stimulus on those days when you just can't get your engine started.
(click cover for Amazon)
Named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers
A poetry tutorial to inform and inspire poets. Includes model poems and prompts, writing tips, and interviews contributed by 56 of our nation’s finest poets, including 13 former and current state Poets Laureate. An additional 45 accomplished poets contributed sample poems inspired by the prompts in this book. Ideal for use in the classroom, this book has been adopted by colleges and universities across the country. It is equally ideal for individual use at home or for group use in workshops. Guaranteed to break through any writer's block.This revised edition contains a full Table of Contents and an Index.
(click cover for Amazon)
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