householdgods

Lisa Hammond | professor . poet . photographer | including some work by wonderful students at the University of South Carolina Lancaster!

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Lovely work by James Crews, inspired by another poem I love, "Love after Love" by Derrick Walcott. I'll have to post that one soon!

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Yesterday's ENGL 101 attendance cards. I asked students to draw a graph or chart or whatever that illustrated their stress levels at this point in the semester. I'm sorry to see that for some students, English is as stressful as life!

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Draw a flower. Think about how you drew it, why you drew it, how you would draw it differently. Draw another. #revision #ENGL101

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Just a handful of today’s attendance cards A little writing anxiety in ENGL 101! (Don’t worry, I’m with you there!)

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Creativity is many things. 

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Wrote poems today for anyone who walked up to our poets’ table at the South Carolina State House.

I am not good at this. Yet. 

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What I’m reading now. Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power.

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Tributaries: "Lily Watch"

By Lisa Hammond Another year we greet summer, spider lilies waking in the Catawba every May, this time blooming slow, a cool April. We follow the lily watch, high water warnings, papers repo...

I’m very grateful to The Fourth River for publishing this poem in their weekly online venue. As with children, we shouldn’t have favorite poems--but I am rather fond of this one...

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What to remember

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As we finish the semester, what are some strategies to keep you engaged in your writing? One of the best recommendations I can make is that you read--the more you read, the better you will write. The more you read, the more you can study craft. The more you read, the more wonder and pleasure you invite into your life. Keeping a reading log will not only create a wonderful record of your life--more than just your reading life--but will also remind you to read more regularly, and will also keep you from reading too much fluff! Fluff books are wonderful! but to be a serious writer, you need to read serious books, and after a while, if you write down too much Victoria Holt, that very act will remind you that you better read something a little more serious too! :)

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Love Grant Snider’s work. Especially love this one...

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In Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon tells us to learn by copying: “Even the Beatles started as a cover band.” Find the work of those you love and learn from it--understanding how that writer or artist or musician sees and frames the world will help you learn your own style. Because even when we all try to draw 10 identical one-inch stars, we still all manage to do something different.

[lastnightsreading]

Elizabeth Alexander at @housingworksbookstore, 9/25/17

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six-word memoirs

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“Hi so I'm calling about the baby shoes? Are they still available? Great! I just had a baby and, you know, haha, baby needs a new pair of shoes! Anyway, so are they, like, NEVER worn? Or just, like, near mint? OK, great. Like, can I ask why—like, your baby didn't like them, or di”

further on the value of the constricted form... 

[lisaghammond]

notebook check in class today