Workshop to discuss 'Poetry and the Metaphor of Self'
The Northwest Cultural Council announces a Second Saturday Poetry Workshop to be held from 9 a.m.- noon on Saturday, Feb. 13, led by Jan Bottiglieri. Saturday's topic will be " Poetry and the Metaphor of Self".
When reading and writing poetry, we are always seeking connection. Poetry provides a bridge between the "self" - that mysterious amalgam of unique experiences and perceptions that define who we are, as separate from who everyone else is - and the other.
How do poets achieve that connection? They use language to translate their own thoughts and experiences (their "selves") into images that resonate with the "selves" of all kinds of readers.
In the same way that poetry uses image as a metaphor for personal experience, it uses the self as a metaphor for human experience. Bottiglieri will look at a few poetic examples (including Walt Whitman) of how poets break the barrier of the self to resonate with readers, and discuss strategies for doing the same in our own poems.
Bottiglieri is a freelance writer living in suburban Chicago. She is an associate editor for the literary annual RHINO and received her MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Bottiglieri's poems have appeared in journals including Harpur Palate, Court Green, Bellevue Literary Review, Rattle and Margie, and anthologies including Solace in So Many Words and Brute Neighbors. Her chapbook, "Where Gravity Pools the Sugar," was published in 2013 by Finishing Line Press, and her full-length collection "The Past is Alloy," Gigantic is forthcoming in 2015 from Mayapple Press.
Participants are encouraged to bring 15 copies of their own work to share with the group. Workshops take place at the Palatine Public Library, 700 N. North Court, Palatine, the second Saturday of each month. All poets and writers are invited to attend the workshop. The cost is $15. Please R.S.V.P. to (847) 382-6922 or email nwcc@att.net.
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