Poetry and the Imagination: A Writing Workshop

Course Description

The word “poet” comes to us from the Ancient Greek word, ποιητής, meaning “creator or maker.” What are the tools the poet-maker uses to say the unsayable and the not-yet-said? How does poetry create worlds, and how does the imagination bring them to life? In what ways does poetry serve as political action, fueling and reflecting protest, social change, and reconciliation? Through the close reading of poems, we’ll consider the capaciousness of poetry to hold multiple perspectives on subjects as wide-ranging as love, war, social and environmental crises, our selves, and the selves of those around us. Readings will serve as springboards for poetry assignments that explore the many ways of meaning-making. 

Meet the Instructor

Cintia Santana

Cintia Santana’s debut poetry collection, The Disordered Alphabet (Four Way Books, 2023) received the 43rd Annual Northern California Book Award in Poetry, the 2024 IPPY Bronze Medal, the 2023 North American Book Award's Silver Medal and was short-listed for the 2023 California Independent Booksellers Alliance “Golden Poppy” Award. Santana's poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2016 and 2020, 2023 Best of the Net Anthology, Poets.org, Poetry Daily, Split this Rock, and numerous journals. She is the recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. A member of the Comparative Literature Department at Stanford University, Santana teaches literary translation and poetry workshops in Spanish and English.