S213. Adding and Removing the Comma: Grammar, Syntax, and the Poetic Line

Room 006B, Henry B. González Convention Center, River Level
Saturday, March 7, 2020
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm

 

In The Art of Syntax, Ellen Bryant Voigt claims “the infinite variations of generative syntax take another quantum leap when they can be reinforced or reconfigured… by the poetic line.” This panel discusses some of the ways poets use grammar, mechanics, and syntax. Panelists consider punctuation, parallelism, modifiers, active and passive voice, grammar in revision, the role of editor, grammatical tense and mood, phrasing re: line breaks, and pronouns and the style guide.


Outline & Supplemental Documents

Event Outline: EventOutlineRevised.docx
Supplemental Document 1: At_Length_»_Muscularity_and_Eros:_On_Syntax.pdf
Supplemental Document 2: PerezAWP_referenceHandout.pdf
Supplemental Document 3: Handbook.pdf

Participants

Moderator:

Diane K. Martin is an online instructor for grammar, mechanics, and usage with UC Berkeley Extension. Her work has appeared in APR, Field, Harvard Review, Kenyon Review, Plume, ZYZZYVA, and many other journals. Conjugated Visits was her first collection and Hue & Cry is her second.

Anna Leahy is a poet, nonfiction writer, and pedagogy scholar. Her books include Aperture, Constituents of Matter, Tumor, Generation Space, and Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom. She directs the MFA in creative writing program at Chapman University and edits TAB.

Beth Ann Fennelly, poet laureate of Mississippi, teaches at the University of MS. Winner of a Pushcart, an NEA, a Fulbright, and a USA Artist Grant, she's published six books: three poetry, three prose. Her newest, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs, was an AJC Best Book of 2017 and a Goodreads favorite.

Emily Pérez is the author of House of Sugar, House of Stone, and the chapbooks Made and Undmade and Backyard Migration Route. A CantoMundo fellow, she has received funding and support from Bread Loaf, the Artist Trust, Jack Straw Writers, and the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley.

Idris Anderson has published two poetry collections. Mrs. Ramsay's Knee was selected by Harold Bloom for the May Swenson Prize. Her most recent book, Doubtful Harbor, was selected by Sherod Santos for the Hollis Summers Prize. She has won a Pushcart Prize and the New York Yeats Society Poetry Prize.

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February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center