If everything is interesting, then nothing is.

This is a common thought that I have in a workshop or seminar setting. Most often, this word is used in a way that divulges zero information about the poem or story in front of me. When I hear a colleague say, “This poem was really interesting to me,” all I hear is, “I read this poem and I have nothing to say about it.”

Before I continue, it is vital to explain the definition of the word, that to me, has lost all of its meaning due to the construct of the MFA program.

Merriam Webster says,

Interesting: adjective ; attracting attention and encouraging the participant’s involvement in learning more about something…the thing being modified is not dull, nor is it boring.
The word was first used, or known of its use around 1768.

Over the past year-and-a-half, I have collected words such as this from conversations in workshop and seminar that have lost actual meaning because of the vague over-usage of them.
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To change this, I think it would be wise for writers working with writers to use other words, or hell, if you are going to say the word interesting, then at least back it up with why it is interesting…and then, when you do that, do muffle together 20 big words that skirt the point. Pinpoint something. Is it the voice? Is it the tone? Is it the diction? What the fuck makes it interesting.

Last year, the editors that I work with and I set out to write a writer’s reference book that delivers poetry “writing prompts” only found at the illustrious MFA level.

Of course, many of us are or have encountered the MFA and walked away with little more than a degree and a manuscript. Yes, yes, I know those are GREAT! But what many of us also walk out with are loads of student loans and zero teaching experience.

How the hell are we supposed to get a teaching job with no teaching experience? Anyways while I am grateful for the connections that I made and the book that I’ve produced, I could have done it without the degree…part of my younger self feels a little tricked into the “it’s necessary” speech given to me by other mentors., but hey, it is what it is, right? After all, I am still writing and I am still doing the same job that I was doing prior to entering the MFA program…so, life is still smiling on me.

Synopsis
For poets and writers who cannot afford or do not want to change their entire lives to write. The exercises were developed from real workshop writing exercises, many of which came from esteemed MFA programs. We came up with a little over 50 exercises, enough for once per week.

If you are interested in supporting small presses and writers, then definitely give it a try. It can be purchased as an electronic copy or physical book. 

This is my final book list for my upcoming oral defense. As you can see, my book list is far different from the list provided by our two faculty poets. I can tell which professor chose certain books based on previous classes (i.e. the fact that I’ve been assigned Mary Ruefle books THREE times in two years…). 

Thank goodness I get to design my own reading list apart from this one because quite honestly, I expected a little bit more from the faculty in terms of breadth and diversity.

Books Chosen by Faculty

• Rae Armantrout, Versed or Next Life
• John Ashbery, Collected and/or Self-Portrait
• Frank Bidart In the Western Night
• Anne Carson, Plainwater, Glass, Irony & God, or Autobiography of Red
• Norman Dubie, The Mercy Seat: Collected and New Poems, 1967-2000
• Russell Edson, The Tunnel
• Louise Gluck, Collected
• Louise Gluck, Proofs & Theories (essays)
• Jorie Graham, Collected
• Robert Hass, The Apple Trees at Olema: New & Selected Poems
• Lyn Hejinian, My Life
• Donald Justice, Collected
• Yusef Komunyakaa, Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems
• W. S. Merwin, Migration or The Lice
• Paul Muldoon The Annals of Chile or Poems 1968-1998
• Alice Notley Grave of Light
• Carl Phillips Quiver of Arrows
• Claudia Rankine Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
• Mary Ruefle Madness, Rack, & Honey (essays)
• Cole Swenson Goest or Gravesend
• C. K. Williams, Collected
• Charles Wright, Negative Blue

Books Chosen by Me

• Charles Bukowski's Pleasures of the Damned                                        
•  Raymond Carver's A New Path to the Waterfall
•  Rebecca Wolff, Catherine Wagner, and Alicia Ostriker’s Not for Mothers Only 
•  Catherine Wagner's My New Job
•  Michael Robbin's Alien VS Predator
•  John Berryman's The Dream Songs
• William Carlos Williams' Spring and All
• E.E. Cummings Selection of Poems
• Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town
• Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
• Joe Wenderoth’s It Is If I Speak
• Rachel Zucker Mothers
• Rebecca Wolff’s King
• Rachel Zucker’s The Bad Wife Handbook
• Federico Garcia Lorca’s Poem of the Deep Song
• Sharon Olds Satan Says