Poetry Workshop: The Pantoum

An old Malay form revived by Victor Hugo, the pantoum is a circular form with a repeating structure where the first line becomes the last line and the third line becomes the fourth line. It's a great form for meditating on the obsessions or quandaries of the past. In this workshop, we'll learn the form of the pantoum and read model pantoums including Donald Justice's "Pantoum of the Great Depression" and Carolyn Kizer's "Parent's Pantoum." We will also try our hand at writing our own pantoums. Bring an open mind!

Natalya Sukhonos, PhD, was born in Odesa, Ukraine. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard and has taught at Harvard, Stanford, UC Davis, SUNY Albany, and Zayed Universities.

This program is supported by a grant from The Arts Center of the Capital Region.