Last Orders - Speaking in Pictures - Saturday February 13th @ the Frye Art Museum

Lillias Bever and I are excited to be teaching this free poetry workshop at the Frye Art Museum a week from Saturday. There are only four slots open, but we would love to have you join us. I bought the book on exphrasis poetry, The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art by John Hollander and just found an essay and poem on Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. One of the things I love about giving workshops is that I need to teach myself 100% more about the subject than what I would learn if I were taking a class. I get to live the curriculum for a few weeks while I plan what will be most useful for the mere 2.5 hours of class. I know many people who read this blog are as far away as India or Ireland, but if you're close enough to Seattle to join us, do come along!

Here is the Frye's description and you can always leave a question or comment here. 4 more places!

Speaking Pictures: A Poetry Workshop

Saturday, February 13, 2010
11 am - 1:30pm

“Painting is mute poetry, and poetry a speaking picture.” —Simonides
“Look at the subject, think about it before photographing, look until it becomes alive and looks back into you.” —Edward Steichen
Poets Susan Rich and Lillias Bever lead a workshop on ekphrasis, poems written about visual art. Famous models of the form by such poets as W.H. Auden, Rilke, Mary Oliver, and Lisel Mueller will be examined as well as recent examples by local poets published in Looking Together: Writers on Art (Frye Art Museum/ University of Washington Press, 2009). Participants will sharpen their powers of observation and try their hand at writing poems on works of art in the Frye’s collection. All levels of writers are welcome.
This free workshop is sponsored in part by 4Culture. For more information and to register, e-mail ekphrasisworkshop@yahoo.com.

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About the Instructors
Susan Rich is the author of three books of poetry from White Pine Press, including The Cartographers’s Tongue, Cures Include Travels, and, forthcoming, The Alchemist’s Kitchen. She has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, PEN USA, and Artist Trust; her recent poems appear in The Antioch Review, Harvard Review and TriQuarterly. Susan teaches English and Film Studies at Highline Community College.
Lillias Bever’s book of poetry, Bellini in Istanbul, was published by Tupelo Press in 2005. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, New England Review, and Gettysburg Review, among other places. She has been the recipient of fellowships and awards from Artist Trust, 4Culture, and the Seattle Arts Commission. Bellini in Istanbul was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.