Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Poetry Fishbowl on Wednesday June 11

Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.

I'm going to host a Poetry Fishbowl on my blog on Wednesday, June 11. (Gods and weather willing; we've had a lot of service outages recently. If that happens again, I'll reschedule.) This time the theme will be languages, linguistics, and linguists. (This was the second-most-popular theme in the poll earlier.) I'll be soliciting ideas for characters, settings, historic or current events, languages, types of wordplay, and poetic forms in particular. Chances are I'll spend a good chunk of the day, from afternoon to evening or more, alternating between this site and doing stuff offline so my back doesn't weld itself to the chair. I will post at least one of the resulting fishbowl poems on the blog for everyone to enjoy. The rest will be available for audience members to buy, and whatever's left over will go into my archive for magazine submission.

You know that part where I say, "This poetry fishbowl brought to you by ..."? Well, this time I'd like to acknowledge some folks who have given me advance inspiration. Special thanks to:
janetmiles for the book Spoken Here
vixyish and Tony for the copy of their album Thirteen
bearleyport, xiphias, and everyone else who contributed to the awesome discussion of "How to Recognize Bad Poetry" -- 60 comments, W00T! A record high for this blog!
You folks all rock. My brain is bubbling already.

If you enjoy my poetry -- or if you just love poetry in general, or want to promote language arts & sciences -- please mark the fishbowl date on your calendar. Drop by and give me some ideas, comment on the posted poetry, encourage people to come look, whatever tickles your fancy. I hope to see you then!
Tags: fishbowl, linguistics, networking, poetry, writing
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  • 3 comments

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ysabetwordsmith

ysabetwordsmith

June 9 2008, 23:29:10 UTC 13 years ago

Right here in the Wordsmith's Forge; I put that in because I announce this in other venues, and it's possible people might mirror it elsewhere. You can see previous fishbowl posts by clicking the "fishbowl" tag, too.

I'm glad you're planning to attend the fishbowl!
minor_architect

minor_architect

June 10 2008, 02:45:48 UTC 13 years ago

I'll be around again on Wednesday. I dunno what type of prompt I'll put forth this time, so I need to think about it. :)
ysabetwordsmith

Yay!

ysabetwordsmith

June 10 2008, 04:03:48 UTC 13 years ago

If you blank on ideas ...

* type "poetic forms" or "poetic techniques" into your favorite search engine and skim till you find something that looks interesting

* photos are acceptable prompts

* for this month's theme, consider looking at a language map, list of famous linguists, or weird word glossary.