Sunday, March 30, 2025; 10am - 12pm
Sliding Scale: $15/$20/$25
What is documentary poetry? Documentary poetry, as described by the Poetry Foundation, is usually written to shed light on an issue or injustice. The issue or injustice may be explored firsthand (if directly experienced by the poet) or secondhand (if experienced by someone other than the poet). Oral or written histories, news coverage, and other sources, may be used in providing context to the issue or injustice being written about. Poets from Muriel Rukeyser to Sonoma County’s own Iris Dunkle and Jodi Hottel have written powerful documentary poetry. As is the case with many subgenres of poetry, the definition of documentary poetry is constantly in flux, therefore workshop participants are encouraged to trust their own instincts instead of seeking to conform to any one style or approach.
In the first thirty minutes of the class the instructor will discuss the idea of documentary poetry. He will then share examples, from his own work and from the work of other poets. For the following thirty minutes, participants will work with the idea of documentary poetry with the goal of completing one or more draft questinas. In the final sixty minutes, participants will be given the opportunity to share and discuss their work.
About the Instructor: Dave Seter is a poet, essayist, and author of the poetry collections Don’t Sing to Me of Electric Fences (Cherry Grove Collections, 2021) and Night Duty (Main Street Rag, 2010). His poems have won the KNOCK Ecolit Prize and placed third in the William Matthews competition. He is the recipient of two Pushcart nominations. He has been an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and has served on the Board of Directors of Marin Poetry Center. He earned his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Princeton University and his graduate degree in humanities from Dominican University of California. He has previously been a guest instructor and panelist at the Dominican University of California Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program. He has been named Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-2026.