Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976005190 ISBN 13: 9780976005193

Publisher: Dos Gatos Press, 2011

Synopsis

Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry is an exciting collection from poets who teach both in and outside academia. Fifty-eight poets in various stages of their careers have contributed sixty-one exercises ranging from quick and simple to involved and multi-layered. In seven chapters, ranging from "Springboards to Imagination" to "Chancing the Accidental" to "Complicating the Poem," each exercise includes not only clear step-by-step instructions, but numerous poems that exemplify the successful completion of the exercise. Wingbeats, edited by Scott Wiggerman and David Meischen, includes exercises for working in pairs and/or groups, for incorporating research and/or the Internet, for writing outdoors, for creating a hands-on experience. Of course, traditional poetic techniques covering metaphor, persona, forms, and revision are also included. Wingbeats is destined to become a standard instructional book in every poet's library.
Praise from Poet’s Market: "an impressive array of prompts from some of America’s preeminent contemporary poets."
Contributors: Rosa Alcalá, Wendy Barker, Ellen Bass, Tara Betts, Catherine Bowman, Susan Briante, Sharon Bridgforth, Nathan Brown, Jenny Browne, Lisa D. Chavez, Alison T. Cimino, Cathryn Cofell, Sarah Cortez, Bruce Covey, Oliver de la Paz, Lori Desrosiers, Cyra S. Dumitru, Blas Falconer, Annie Finch, Gretchen Fletcher, Madelyn Garner, Barbara Hamby, Carol Hamilton, Penny Harter, Kurt Heinzelman, Jane Hilberry, Andrea Hollander, Karla Huston, David Kirby, Laurie Kutchins, Ellaraine Lockie, Ed Madden, Anne McCrady, Robert McDowell, Ray McManus, David Meischen, Harryette Mullen, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Hoa Nguyen, Naomi Shihab Nye, Katherine Durham Oldmixon, Kathleen Peirce, Georgia A. Popoff, Patty Seyburn, Ravi Shankar, Shoshauna Shy, Patricia Smith, Jessamyn Johnston Smyth, Bruce Snider, Lisa Russ Spaar, Susan Terris, Lewis Turco, Andrea L. Watson, Afaa Michael Weaver, William Wenthe, Scott Wiggerman, Abe Louise Young, Matthew Zapruder

About this title

About the Author

Scott Wiggerman is the author of three books of poetry, Leaf and Beak: Sonnets (a finalist for the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry), Presence, and Vegetables and Other Relationships. Co-founder of Dos Gatos Press, Wiggerman has edited two volumes of Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry, as well as three installments in Poetry of the American Southwest. Wiggerman has multiple publication credits, with notable achievements as a writer of sonnets, ghazals, and haiku. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.^David Meischen is a Pushcart honoree, with a personal essay in Pushcart Prize XLII. Recipient of the 2017 Kay Cattarulla Award for Best Short Story from the Texas Institute of Letters, Meischen has fiction, nonfiction, or poetry in Borderlands, Copper Nickel, The Gettysburg Review, Southern Poetry Review, Talking Writing, Valparaiso Fiction Review and elsewhere. Co-founder and Managing Editor of Dos Gatos Press, he lives in Albuquerque, NM, with his husband—also his co-publisher and co-editor—Scott Wiggerman.

Review

Wingbeats is a fabulous toolbox of innovative and practical ideas that literally every teacher of poetry workshops and at every level, from elementary poets-in-the-schools through the graduate MFA, will find indispensible. Covering a vast range from image to sound to form, the exercises are all concrete and clearly presented a marvelous way to mine the imaginations and experiences of today s most dynamic poets. Invaluable!
Cole Swensen, author of 14 books of poetry; ten years on the faculty of the Iowa Writer s Workshop; winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, the New American Poetry Series Award, and the National Poetry Series competition --Letter to the editors of Wingbeats from Cole Swensen

I opened Wingbeats and fell in headfirst, caught in the feathers of the creative impulse. Wingbeats proves that poetry matters, that writing is an experimental discovery process, that there are many avenues to success, that writing poems is a gift we can all claim. The wealth of enabling nudges by the poets of Wingbeats who share their energy, wisdom, and examples opens the door wide to our creative Selves. No teacher, no aspiring poet should be without the gentle guidance of this book.
Gabriele Rico, Ph.D., author of Writing the Natural Way --Letter to the editors of Wingbeats from Gabriele Rico

Like agility training for athletes, some poets gain metaphorical muscle from performing writing exercises and drills. In this sense, agility is the ability to move and change direction and position of the pen quickly while effectively maintaining control. There are numerous poetry exercise books that are practical for these drills: The Poet's Companion, In the Palm of Your Hand, The Practice of Poetry, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, etc. All wonderful! But if you are looking for optimum poetry performance with increased strength of mind, inaction reduction and enhanced inspiration, Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry is a manual to power lift off the bookshelf. It has 61 exercises by poets with a wide range of poetic styles and approaches to the process: Annie Finch, David Kirby, Naomi Shihab Nye, Harryette Mullen, Matthew Zapruder, et al. The exercise titles are fun and flip A Crack in the Cup, Lyrical Bees, Scissors & Glue Sticks, Two Sides of the Same Coil, Thrift Shop, Over My Dead Body but most have a deceivingly well-developed way of exploring craft and process. This is sophisticated play. I found exercises that have taken me beyond my ordinary patterns and limitations. Wingbeats will get your pen moving. This book is buff! --The Coachella Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Dos Gatos Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0976005190
• ISBN 13: 9780976005193
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324
• Editor: Wiggerman Scott, Meischen David