Bemidji Pioneer: Poetry proficiency: Northwoods Writers Conference underway at BSU | News

Jericho Brown, a poet and an associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta, leads a workshop in poetry writing during the Northwoods Writers Conference on Wednesday in Hagg Sauer Hall at BSU. (Jillian Gandsey | Bemidji Pioneer)

Hawona Sullivan Janzen, of St. Paul, talks about a poem during a workshop at the Northwoods Writers Conference on Wednesday in Hagg Sauer Hall at BSU. (Jillian Gandsey | Bemidji Pioneer)

Mary Maroste, who traveled from Houghton, Mich. for the Northwoods Writers Conference, discusses a poem during a workshop on Wednesday in Hagg Sauer Hall at BSU. (Jillian Gandsey | Bemidji Pioneer)

A group gathers for a poetry workshop during the Northwoods Writers Conference on Wednesday in Hagg Sauer Hall at BSU. (Jillian Gandsey | Bemidji Pioneer)

Creative writers from across the country had a chance Wednesday morning to share their poems and stories with an audience of their peers at the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference at BSU.

All week there are readings, workshops and consultations with instructors — a rigorous program meant to give writers thoughtful feedback and to grow their understanding of different genres.

“In a poem, if you repeat two things up there, you can repeat two things down here,” said Jericho

Brown, a poet and an associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta. “That will give you more to say.”

Brown’s class read and scrutinized poems about a fractured family, a driver in a blizzard, a man detached from reality. Each writer would sit silently as the group scrutinized his or her work — first what they loved, then what they wanted to change.

Jacqueline Trimble’s poem, “Lineage,” started with a few stanzas that swept smoothly along, before ending with a harsh, expletive-laced stanza. The class said they appreciated the gush of emotion, but wondered if the poem would be better without it.

Brown let the class volley ideas back and forth, preaching individuality over cliche. When a poem seemed to confuse the group, or when an idea lacked clarity, Brown would jump in.

“There’s people who read poems and get confused,” he said. “They say, ‘I don’t know what that means, but OK.’

“I don’t know how y’all live that way. I can’t live that way. It stresses me out.”

Brown and the other instructors were picked for their success as writers, and for their ability as teachers. Every night through Saturday, they will read selections of their work at gatherings open to the public — 7:30 at the American Indian Resource Center.

Workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and mixed genre rolled along Wednesday up and down BSU’s Hagg-Sauer Hall.

In Brown’s room, the group discussed how to improve Graham Coppin’s poem, “If You See Something, Say Something.” They wondered if a red Ferrari, which appeared in the opening stanza, was a little heavy-handed.

“Maybe a red Prius,” someone suggested.