Study Group Details
1620: In Search of the Boundlessness of the Everyday: The Poetry of Linda Pastan
Wednesday1:45 - 3:15
Starting June 03
Online
Linda Pastan (1932-2023), longtime resident of the DC area, gave up writing poetry after college—despite winning a prestigious prize (beating out Sylvia Plath)—to focus on raising a family. Ten years later she returned to writing, and eventually published 17 books of poetry during her life. Much of Pastan's work is grounded in home and family life, touching on themes such as marriage, parenting, aging, and relationships, but it approaches these "common" experiences with uncommon sensitivity and transcendent imagination. We will explore poems from Pastan's under-celebrated oeuvre, with attention to the ways they expand our awareness and enrich our understanding of the person she was and the life she chose to lead.
This study group is new
Class Type: Reading and Discussion
Class Format: Online
Hours of Reading: Less than 1 hr/week
Study Group Leader(s):
Silas Mullins
Silas Mullins is a poet and professor living in New Haven, Connecticut. He teaches poetry and writing at Central Connecticut State University and English to speakers of other languages in the New Haven Public Schools. Silas has also lived in New York City, Boston, and Hong Kong. He is currently working on a first collection of poems, a "trail guide" recounting collaborative writing experiences he has designed with fellow writers to provide starting points for new writers, and an anthology of translations of poems by the poets Gabriela Mistral and Alfonsina Storni. Silas enjoyed leading a June mini at OLLI last summer that explored perspectives on mindfulness in poetry by Xie Lingyun, Fernando Pessoa, Tony Hoagland, and Marie Howe. He believes the practice of reading and writing poetry will never be outmoded or replaced, so long as people prioritize connecting with what they feel and sharing that experience with others. Silas also strongly believes poetry is more than the act of writing poems, it is the art of doing anything with honesty, bravery, and excellence.