Poetry: A Writer's Guide and Anthology

by Amorak Huey, W. Todd Kaneko

Overview

Fully revamped and expanded, this second edition offers a complete introduction to the art and craft of writing poetry. Mapping out 38 foundational elements of poetry including image, line, point of view, metaphor, movement, and music, authors Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko use these elements as starting points for discussion questions and writing prompts. The book guides readers through a range of poetic modes and styles such as:
o Elegies and Odes
o Found poems
o Aubades and Nocturnes
o Documentary and Protest poems
o Ars Poetica
o Lyric and Narrative poems
o Personas and Portraits
With a focus on contemporary poems, the anthology features a truly diverse and global line-up of poets and poems to illustrate the elements and craft discussed in the book. Featuring all-new chapters on traditional poetic forms, prosody, writing poems that engage the current moment, and the value and ethics of imitation, this is the ultimate companion to studying and practicing the craft of poetry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350325913
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/22/2024
Series:	Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	588,983
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Amorak Huey teaches creative writing at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA. He is author of four books of poetry, including Dad Jokes from Late in the Patriarchy (2021). He is co-founding editor of River River Books; he and W. Todd Kaneko also collaborated on the award-winning chapbook Slash/Slash (2021).
W. Todd Kaneko teaches creative writing at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA. A Kundiman fellow, he is the author of the poetry books This Is How the Bone Sings (2020) and The Dead Wrestler Elegies, Championship Edition (2023) and co-author with Amorak Huey of the chapbook Slash/Slash (2021).

Table of Contents

PREFACE

SECTION I: An Introduction to Poetry
Chapter 1. Why Do We Write Poems?
Chapter 2. Who Gets to Be a Poet?
Chapter 3. Where Do Poems Come From?
Chapter 4. Reading, Writing, and Making Meaning

SECTION II: The Elements of Poetry
Chapter 5. Rhetorical Construction
Chapter 6. Kairos
Chapter 7. The Elements of Poetry

SECTION III: Beyond the Elements
Chapter 8: The Poetry Workshop
Chapter 9: Revision
Chapter 10: Proceed with Caution
Chapter 11: The Importance and Ethics of Imitation
Chapter 12: Forms (Fixed and Broken, Traditional and Contemporary)
Chapter 13: Prosody

SECTION IV: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetic Modes
Apostrophe
Ars Poetica
Aubade&Nocturne
Documentary
Ekphrasis
Elegy
Environmental
Found
List
Love Poem
Lyric
Meditation
Narrative
Occasional
Ode
Persona
Portrait
Protest
Appendix A: 100 Poetry Experiments
Appendix B: Additional Reading
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

(Praise for the first edition)

With Poetry: A Writers' Guide and Anthology, it is as if Huey and Kaneko have been looking over my shoulder at my class notes and have built a streamlined textbook specifically to meet my needs. Collected in one volume are chapters of practical advice and explanation about poetic elements (including a periodic table!), along with an amazing, truly up-to-date anthology of example poems. Most appropriate for students new to poetry, this book will serve as a solid review text for more advanced students as well.” —Sandy Longhorn, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Arkansas Writers MFA Program, University of Central Arkansas, USA

“For a while now, many of us have seen the need to redefine – and hopefully to reinvigorate – the teaching of poetry writing. Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko, by stressing “practice rather than interpretation,” have made a poetry writing textbook that dances in the mind, even as it takes all of us back to the pleasure and hard work of our art. They are generous with the “elements” of poetry that animate their own teaching. Their illustrative anthology at the end may be the best collection of “contemporary classic” poems currently available. This is a book we – all of us, from beginners to wizened masters – could use in the classroom or simply sit down and read.” —Keith Taylor, A.L. Becker Collegiate Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, University of Michigan, USA

““Write a poem for your future self to find,” cajole Huey and Kaneko, the editors of this accessible and generative textbook, the first in a long time to be a great poetry primer, a fine anthology, and a useful encyclopedia. Elements, modes, images, surprise – the concepts and their applications are all here, detailed and methodically presented, the clear writing always a pleasure. Poetry: A Writer's Guide and Anthology should be the go-to book for teachers and students alike, all of whom may well be writing to find their future selves.” —Alan Michael Parker, Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English, Davidson College, USA

“A perfect combination of informative textbook, practical manual, and inspirational anthology. In a lively and accessible style, Huey and Kaneko introduce the genre of poetry and offer sage advice on the writing workshop. Aspiring poets and their mentors will returban again and again to the book's two A–Z sections: 'The Elements of Poetry', an indispensable reference resource; and 'An Anthology of Contemporary Poetic Modes', an irresistible compendium of illustrative examples.” —Peter Blair, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Chester, UK

“This book makes writing poetry fun-not easy, as Huey and Kaneko caution-but fun because poetry delights, pivots, puns, and plays, inspiring us to read and observe this sparkling world with our senses and mark it with our pens. Amorak and Todd obviously had a blast writing this. You will have a blast reading it-and write some incredible poems to boot.” —Nicole Walker, Editor of Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction

“Remember that friend you had, who knew all the cool stuff and loved to share it with you so that you also were getting smarter, more aware, worldlier, cooler, too—even though you mostly were just hanging out and having a blast? Energetic and gracious, lively and companionable, this book is that kind of friend.” —Michael Theune, Professor of English, Illinois Wesleyan University, USA

From the Publisher