Affiliated Departments & Programs

Janet McAdams is Kenyon's first Robert P. Hubbard Professor of Poetry. She teaches courses in creative writing and Indigenous American literature. Her books include "The Island of Lost Luggage" (University of Arizona Press, 2000), which won the American Book Award, "Feral" (Salt Modern Poets, UK, 2007), "Red Weather" (University of Arizona, 2012), and a chapbook of prose poems, "Seven Boxes for the Country After" (Kent State University Press, 2016). With Geary Hobson and Kathryn Walkiewicz, she edited the anthology "The People Who Stayed: Southeastern Indian Writing after Removal" (University of Oklahoma, 2009).

Education

1996 — Doctor of Philosophy from Emory University

1987 — Master of Fine Arts from Univ Alabama Tuscaloosa

1983 — Bachelor of Arts from Univ Alabama Tuscaloosa

Courses Recently Taught

Prerequisite: ENGL 103 or 104. Only open to first-year and sophomore students.

This course sets out to trouble your assumptions — both conscious and unrecognized — about poetry: writing it, reading it, responding to it; its purpose, its nature, its public and private selves. We explore revision in the fullest senses of the word, aiming not only toward compression and economy but also toward expansion and explosion, toward breaking down the boundaries between what constitutes — for the student as writer and reader — poem and not-poem. We reverse the usual order of things: Our workshopping focuses on canonized poems; students should expect to engage fully in the role of poet-critic when responding to classmates' work, approaching it as they approach texts in the literature classroom. We explore poetry's technologized face through blogs and webzines, even as, Luddite-like, we hand-write, cut, paste, find and memorize poetry. This class requires intensive reading (and attendant thoughtful response) in poetry and poetics; enthusiastic engagement with exercises in critique, revision and poem-making; and a final project, demonstrating advancement as both critic and poet during the course of the semester. Texts likely include several volumes of contemporary poetry, selected critical essays, manifestoes, writings on process and readings by visiting writers. This counts toward the creative writing emphasis and the creative practice requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ENGL 201 or 205 (or an equivalent introductory workshop) and permission of instructor via application. Consult the department for information on the application process and deadlines.