For our Tuesday, February 12 class session, please read Mary Biddinger’s full-length collection of poems O Holy Insurgency (Black Lawrence Press, 2013). While reading, think about how both the book and individual poems therein engage the concepts we’ve covered in James Longenbach’s The Resistance to Poetry. Make sure you’re annotating the poems and taking notes as you read.
After finishing the collection, you will need to write a response essay that addresses how Biddinger’s poems and Longenbach’s ideas relate to one another. Choose one concept from Longenbach and focus on how it manifests itself in O Holy Insurgency. The choice of what concept you select is up to you, but make sure it’s one that appears with some frequency. I would suggest returning to Longenbach not just as a reference, but to examine how he engages, analyzes, and writes about poems on a formal level.
Responses will be 2 full pages, double spaced, and typed in 12-point Times New Roman font with one inch margins. You should properly cite from both O Holy Insurgency and The Resistance to Poetry, using MLA-format. All essays will be due at the beginning of our class session. No late assignments will be accepted.
For Wednessday, February 13 (the day after our Tuesday class session and before the reading during our Thursday session), you will need to send me an email that contains three questions for Biddinger based upon her book or our in-class discussions. Not only are writing these questions part of your grade, so is asking them after the reading.
Please email me if you have any questions. Also, please spread the word about Thursday’s reading and invite friends if you would like, as it is open to the poublic.
