This course, led by Michael Braziller, publisher of Persea Books, will feature a poetry reading and discussion with three distinguished American poets: Timothy Donnelly, Matthea Harvey, and Dennis Nurkse. While other disciplines might set out to carve the unknown into knowable slices, poems thrive on negative capability. A poem can trip us back into the strangeness of our lives. A poem might situate consciousness in a place other than the observing mind, or radically tweak the alphabets we use. To some extent poems seek bewilderment to escape from a way of being in the world that is mechanical, thoughtless or spiritless, to shed the deadening of habit and routine. Each of these poets has found a distinct and original voice, but they share experimental approaches to portraying consciousness in a poem. The discussion will explore the ways in which they use their craft to capture surprise and bewilderment.

No prior registration or fee is required. To view the poems, please click on the links below. Please bring a printed copy to the class. Copies of the poems will not be provided at the event.

Donnelly Poems (PDF)
Donnelly Poems (Word)

Nurkse Poem (PDF)
Nurkse Poem (Word)

Harvey Poem (PDF)
Harvey Poem (Word)

Timothy Donnelly's first book of poems, Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit, was published by Grove Press in 2003. He has been poetry editor of Boston Review since 1995. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and journals including American Letters & Commentary, The Canary, Conduit, Crowd, The Denver Quarterly, Fence, jubilat, The Literary Review, The Modern Review, The Paris Review, PEN America, Ploughshares, A Public Space, TriQuarterly, Volt, and many others. His prose has appeared in American Poet, Poetry Daily, Publisher's Weekly, Verse, and elsewhere. He is on the faculty of the writing program of Columbia University's School of the Arts and lives in Brooklyn.

Matthea Harvey is the author of three books of poetry—Modern Life, Sad Little Breathing Machine, and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form—and a forthcoming children's book, The Little General and the Giant Snowflake. She is a contributing editor to jubilat, BOMB, and Meatpaper. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn.

Dennis Nurkse is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently The Border Kingdom, Burnt Island, and The Fall, from Alfred Knopf. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and awards from the N.E.A., NYFA, the Tanne Foundation, and the Poetry Foundation. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.