History

The Summer Writing Program at Naropa University is a four-week-long convocation of students, poets, scholars, fiction writers, translators, performance artists, activists, Buddhist teachers, musicians, printers, editors and others working in small press publishing. In dialogue with renowned practitioners, students engage in the composition of poetry, prose fiction, cross-genre possibilities, inter-arts, translation and writing for performance. Participants work in daily contact with some of the most accomplished and notoriously provocative writers of our time, meeting individually and in small groups, so that both beginning and experienced writers find equal challenge in the program. The tradition emphasized is of the “Outrider” or left-hand lineage, which operates outside the cultural mainstream—a heritage of powerful scholarship and counter-poetics.

The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics grew out of the Summer Writing Program, founded in 1974 by the late Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.

The Summer Writing Program is open to any interested participant for non-credit. It also serves each year as a third semester for Naropa’s accredited MFA in Writing and Poetics and as the residency component for Naropa’s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing, complementing each year with an intensive summer learning experience. Students from other institutions or degree programs may also elect to attend for BA credit or MFA credit.

In this program, we examine movements in creative writing practice that have revolutionized “the word,” bringing it closer to the human body and the human voice. As performance of text includes the construction of elegant non-corporate books and broadsides, we also offer letterpress printing classes taught by renowned guest printers each week.

Residential MFA Orientation Week June 12—18
Orientation week is intended for new residential MFA in Writing and Poetics students ONLY. New low-residency MFA in Creative Writing students are welcome to attend orientation week, but should contact the SWP office to discuss at 303.245.4600. Orientations and information sessions for low-residency MFA students, BA students, and non-credit students will take place during the academic program. See the Master Schedule after you arrive for times and locations.

Convocation, Sunday June 18
All SWP students registered for Week One of the program should attend this event in the Performing Arts Center from 5-7pm.

WEEK ONE: June 19—25
Ecology of Mind and Planet / Poethics
Faculty and Guests include: Joan Retallack, Michael McClure, Elizabeth Robinson, Harryette Mullen, Jonathan Skinner, Maureen Owen, Lewis MacAdams, Kass Fleisher, Barbara Henning, Eleni Sikelianos, Tonya Foster, David Henderson, Lila Zemborain, Brad O¹Sullivan (printshop)

WEEK TWO: June 26—July 2
Critical Edge/Dialectics/A Poetics of Prose
Faculty and Guests include: Elizabeth Willis, Rebecca Brown, Anne Waldman, Laird Hunt, Ron Silliman, Akilah Oliver, Lisa Jarnot, Donald Preziosi, Thalia Field, Alan Gilbert, Max Regan, Chris Tysh, Shari DeGraw (printshop)

WEEK THREE: July 3—9
The Continent and Abroad
Faculty and Guests include: Samuel R. Delany, Matvei Yankelevich, Zhang Er, Hoa Nyugen, Dale Smith, Quincy Troupe, Meredith Quartermain, Peter Quartermain, Rikki Ducornet, Sawako Nakayasu, Mark McMorris, Anselm Hollo, Indira Ganesan, Bhanu Kapil, James Thomas Stevens, Mary Laird (printshop)

WEEK FOUR: July 10—16
Media & Performance & Collaboration
Faculty and Guests include: Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Bob Holman, Brian Evenson, Kristin Prevallet, Johanna Drucker, Bobbie Louise Hawkins/Andrew Wille, Miguel Algarin, Karen Finley, Jack Collom, Fiona Templeton, Junior Burke, Lytle Shaw, Julia Seko (printshop)

The Summer Writing Program is under the artistic direction of Anne Waldman, with Lisa Birman as director.

To receive the Summer Writing Program catalog in April 2006, please contact:

Corrina Lesser, SWP Finance & Registration Manager
Summer Writing Program, Naropa University
2130 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder CO 80302
303-245-4600
clesser@naropa.edu

Previous Summer Writing Program Information

2007
2006
2005
2004
2003

For more history,
visit the Naropa University History page.

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