The Breath Within is the Wind Without: Reading and Writing Villanelles
Edward Hirsch reminds us that poems are made things that can “communicate before they are understood.” In this short workshop, we’ll examine how the villanelle form allows structure to shape a reader’s experience alongside—or before—whatever work is done by the words themselves. We’ll study well-wrought villanelles by Bishop and Roethke before drafting our own. Participants will leave with a new or renewed appreciation of the form and a fresh work in progress.
Jeremy Pataky's debut book of poetry, Overwinter, was released from University of Alaska Press in March 2015. Jeremy earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Montana. His work has appeared in Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Cirque, Ice Floe, Left-Facing Bird, The Southeast Review, and many others. He has worked as a wilderness guide, nonprofit executive director, university instructor, and after school poetry teacher. He is a founding board member of the 49 Alaska Writing Center. He divides his time between Anchorage and the town of McCarthy, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.