Alex Dimitrov

M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College. Author of Together and by Ourselves (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), Begging for It (Four Way Books, 2013), and the online chapbook American Boys (2012). He is the recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Prize from the American Poetry Review and a Pushcart Prize. SLC, 2019–

Previous Courses

Poetry Craft: Writers in a School of One: The Singular Imagination

Craft—Spring

In this class, we will look at poets who may not be easily associated with or placed within poetic groups and movements as a result of their distinctive styles, imaginations, aesthetics, and, in some cases, hermetic lifestyles. We will study Emily Dickinson, Robert Lax, Elizabeth Bishop, Claudia Rankine, Thomas James, CAConrad and others. In an attempt to learn from their making, we will closely examine how craft elements—such as repetition, diversion, mystery, minimalism, pacing, and drastic leaps—operate within their work. All of this will be done in an effort to discover the singular voice within each of us as poets. Additionally, we will engage in writing exercises, language experiments with crystals, and discuss the occult in poetry. Theoretical voices such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes will guide us along the way in an effort to understand style and authorship. We will listen to The Doors. We will experiment. Anything is possible.

Faculty