Yesterday I posted a new Poetry Kitchen class, this one on revision, a subject I've actively been rethinking and trialing in my work at Monson Arts. The usual revision-teaching approach is the workshop model, in which participants share new work that the teacher and classmates then critique. I call this the Joan-of-Arc-tied-to-a-stake model of revision teaching. The class flings advice, and the poet silently endures the assault.

There are numerous problems with this approach. Even if we set aside the poet's feelings of anxiety and fear and stupidity (and why should we set them aside? why should anyone have to be hazed like this?), we end up with a teaching model that depends on sorting through a barrage of exterior advice rather than one that enhances the poet's ability to see and judge their own work clearly and vigorously. If we want to teach poets to become confident, independent, and clear-sighted, the workshop model is clearly an inadequate method for doing so.

Plus, I hate it. I hate being the flinger of advice. I hate having advice flung at me. Why should I reinforce this terrible pattern in my classes or my own writing life?

During last year's high school sessions at Monson Arts, I experimented with some new ways of teaching revision, and at the Conference on Poetry and Learning I shared them with the participants, using experiential activities so that we all got to feel the difference in approach. Afterward Teresa said, "You should start offering plain old revision classes to practicing poets via this model." And so, voila, I have created a new Poetry Kitchen session that does exactly that.

"Revision Intensive: Trusting Yourself" is a two-day class, held November 9 and 10 on Zoom, that centers around my belief that we need to intensify our own engagement with our in-process poems rather than rely primarily on the external advice of instructors or classmates. While a supportive community can be wonderfully uplifting, in the end we each need to depend on our own instincts, our own engagement with the art and our material.

Via a series of exercises, discussions, and writing prompts, the class will focus on showing participants how to see their poems-in-progress clearly and usefully. It will help them learn to trust their ability to make exciting and productive decisions about revision and to distinguish between useful suggestions and destructive ones. The goal is to give participants the skills and confidence to move their poems forward into new forms.

This approach was spectacularly successful in the classroom last year, and it was also well received at the conference. It is, essentially, exactly how I approach revision in my own poems. Merely, I figured out a way to frame it for sharing. A note: Even if you attended the conference, this class might be useful for you as it will be focusing directly on you and your poems, not you as a teacher or a purveyor of poetry. This is a class for writers-in-progress.

FYI, at the moment there's still plenty of space in the class, but my October Poetry Kitchen offering is now completely full. So you might want to snag a spot soon, if you're interested. The cost is $150.