NEGATIVE CAPABILITY WORKSHOP

“Negative Capability— I mean when a [person] is capable of being in a state of uncertainty without any irritable grasping after fact and reason.“ John Keats casually tossed this single sentence into an offhand letter to his brothers almost 200 years ago, and yet, to this day it remains as salient and vital a concept as ever for discussing poetics.

Attentive readers of b l u s h might rightly assume that we are not fans of heavy-handed didactic poetry. Rather Negative Capability is certainly one of our core values as editors, writers, readers, and, well, people. In this spirit, this workshop-seminar is designed to be a celebration and discussion of the concept.

This workshop will embrace Negative Capability as a framework for discussion and how to further advance and cultivate our individual poetic practices. We will read Keats’ letter, commentary on the letter, and some intersecting/ adjacent thoughts on poetics (Paul Valéry, Barbara Guest, Bernadette Mayer, Wallace Stevens) in order to more fully realize our individual poetic visions.

3 weekly Tuesday meetings (short session due to impending holidays)
December 3, 10, 17
6-8pm EST
meetings held online via Zoom
$50-75 sliding scale (introductory rate)

to enroll

email: blush.editors@gmail.com

subject: NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

b l u s h presents our DEAD POETS WORKSHOP, an online workshop-seminar, co-lead by b l u s h editors Jon Ruseski & Rachelle Rahmé. In this class we will read DEAD POETS for inspiration and discussion. The texts provided will be scarce, rare, under-read, and under-circulated, ranging from Ancient Greece to Sung Dynasty China to 20th Century New York. Emphasis is placed on the decadent, esoteric, strange, and erotic. Students will submit poems for feedback on a weekly basis, with optional writing prompts also provided. We will put our writing in conversation with the DEAD to better understand why were are even writing poems in the first place.

NOVEMBER WORKSHOP FULLY ENROLLED!

DEAD POETS WORKSHOP RETURNS IN JANUARY

4 weekly Tuesday meetings
November 5, 12, 19, 26
6-8pm EST
meetings held online via Zoom
$50-100 sliding scale (introductory rate)

to enroll

email: blush.editors@gmail.com

subject: DEAD POETS WORKSHOP