Mondays, 1 – 3 PM | April 4 – May 9 (NOTE CHANGE: No class on April 18 but will have a make up class on May 16 from 1-3 PM)

       Instructor: Deborah Brown

Contemporary poems share these traits: an absence of traditional rhyme and rhythmic patterns as well as an absence of formal sentence structure and syntax; an informal, often colloquial language; and a strong allegiance to the writer’s cultural or ethnic background. No longer is poetry written primarily by white, middle-class men and a few white, middle-class women with similar educations, but, rather,  by people of all genders, races, ethnicities, and classes. 

Among those poets we are considering: Native American poets Natalie Diaz and Tommy Pico;  African American poets Claudia Rankine and Tracy K. Smith; Vietnamese-born Ocean Vuong; and Odessa-born Ilya Kaminsky.

Deborah Brown is a widely published poet and UNH Professor Emeritus (English). Her most recent book of poems, The Human Half, published by BOA Editions, received the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry for 2021. Her first book, Walking the Dog’s Shadow, was a winner of the A. J. Poulin Jr. Award from BOA Editions and the 2011 New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry.