I’ve spent the few days knee-deep in some heavy-duty revision. I think that I have revised 10 poems or so to my liking. I’m also happy to report that some literary journals do get a head start on their reading periods, and I was able to send out four packets of poems. September is one of the craziest months of the year for me, so if I don’t get poems sent out in August, they often don’t get sent out until late October or early November.
However, revision is not just for poetry. School starts in a few weeks and I’m in the middle of making some important changes in both my developmental writing classes and my creative writing course. I just got finished with Tom Hunley’s book, Teaching Poetry Writing: A Five Canon Approach, and I am going to revamp my course according to many of the ideals found in this text, including teaching poetry writing in the context of rhetoric and comp theory. I actually have more “formal” education in rhetoric and comp than I do in creative writing, so I found Hunley’s discussion of theory refreshing compared to many poetry books which deal with craft, but not pedagogy.
I am also designing a new class for my developmental students. The class, titled “Sports in Popular Culture” is paired with study skills, reading skills and writing components. I have plenty of reading material, but I am also using some movie clips. However, I have been a bit disappointed in the selection of sports movies that contain female characters. So far, I have one selection: Bend it Like Beckham. Quite a few years ago, I saw a Lifetime (I think it was Lifetime) movie titled Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. I like the movie well enough, so I found the book which was a great read, and remains a favorite in my journalism class. However, the movie has never been released on DVD. If anyone has any thoughts on movies with women sports figures, please let me know!
The Scrapper Poet 