The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach

Robin Behn · Chase Twichell

Apr 2013 · Harper Collins

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A distinctive collection of more than 90 effective poetry-writing exercises combined with corresponding essays to inspire writers of all levels.

The Practice of Poetry is the first handbook for poets to combine poetry-writing exercises with illuminating personal essays by each contributor. The editors, Robin Behn and Chase Twichell, who are themselves poets and teachers of creative writing, have collected more than ninety tested and proven exercises intended for poets enrolled in writing programs or working on their own.

Poetry, like any art, is best mastered through practice and, as Behn and Twichell point out in their introduction, “A good exercise serves as a scaffold . . . [and] helps you think about, articulate, and solve specific creative problems.” The exercises in The Practice of Poetry addresses a broad range of topics: the struggle from inspiration, transforming memory and experience into writing, the process of revision, experimenting with formal structure, as well as many others. The result is a comprehensive, distinctive collection of exciting exercises that stimulate the imagination and increase technical flexibility and control.

The Practice of Poetry offers poets a chance to sample the best creative-writing techniques being taught in programs around the country and will prove an unlimited resource for any poet writing today.

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Robin Behn is a graduate of Oberlin College, the University of Missouri at Columbia, and the University of Iowa. She is a noted poet, a professor of English, and the director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. Behn's poems have appeared in a variety of literary journals, and she has published two collections of her poems, Paper Bird and The Red Hour. Behn's poetry has earned her numerous awards, including the Associated Writings Program Award Series in Poetry for Paper Bird, the New England Review narrative poetry prize, and a Pushcart Prize. Her poem French Horn appears in the Pushcart Prize, XVIII Best of the Small Presses, 1993-94; Midwestern Villanelle was published in the 1992 edition of Best American Poetry. Behn has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from arts councils in Illinois and Alabama. Behn is the coeditor of The Practice of Poetry Writing: Exercises from Poets Who Teach, a book about creative writing. Aimed at both making writing enjoyable and stimulating creative, flexible thinking, the book has become a favorite resource for both teachers and students of poetry.