The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft

Good News! The Strategic Poet has been named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers.

The Strategic Poet has been reviewed in Mom Egg Review. Reviewer Lara Lillibridge says, "If you are going to read just one craft book on poetry, The Strategic Poet is the most thorough and easiest to follow that I’ve read."

The Strategic Poet​ has been reviewed in Heavy Feather Review. Reviewer Deborah Bacharach says, "[Lockward is] teaching us how to let every poem we read teach us the thematic, rhetorical, and musical moves a poet can make."

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The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft focuses on the craft of poetry and is based on the belief that craft can be taught and the best teacher of craft is a good poem. This book assumes a knowledgeable reader, that is, one who already knows the language of poetry and already practices the craft. This book is organized into thirteen sections, each one devoted to a specific poetic strategy. While only thirteen strategies are used for organizational purposes, the reader will find many additional strategies referred to and discussed within the sections. There is a progression from one section to the next, but each section also stands alone, so the reader or teacher can follow the order of the Contents or move about freely among the sections.

Each section begins with a Craft Talk solicited from a well-known poet with a clear mastery of craft. Each Craft Talk is followed by Model Poems and Prompts. Each Model Poem is followed by an analysis of its craft elements, especially its use of the section's strategy. One Model Poem in each section is followed by a Commentary from the poet who wrote the poem and is focused on a particular strategy used in the poem. 

Each of the thirty-six Prompts is followed by two Sample Poems written to the prompts. These seventy-two poems demonstrate that the prompts are not mere exercises and can produce terrific poems. 

Each section ends with three Bonus Prompts. There thirty-nine additional prompts were contributed by thirteen contemporary poets. These short prompts provide additional practice with the strategies, can be used multiple times, and should lead to some good poems.

Contributors include 114 of our best contemporary poets.

Craft Talk Poets
Ellen Bass    Jan Beatty    Lauren Camp    Annie Finch    David Graham    Tami Haaland
W. Todd Kaneko    Meg Kearney    Danusha Laméris    Peter Murphy
Dion O’Reilly    Diane Seuss    Marilyn L. Taylor

​Model Poem Poets  
Pamela Baggett    George Bilgere    Traci Brimhall    Nicole Callihan    Beth Copeland    George Drew    Camille Dungy 
Dara Elerath    Melanie Figg    Robert Fillman    Kate Gaskin    J.P. Grasser    Jesse Graves    Jared Harél
Lois Marie Harrod    Elise Hempel    Tina Kelley    Ada Limón    Melanie McCabe     Lynn McGee      Brad Aaron Modlin
David O’Connell    Matthew Olzmann    Jessica Piazza    Catherine Pierce    Craig van Rooyen    Sean Shearer
James Scruton    Rob Shapiro    Adam Tavel    Sara Moore Wagner    Frank X Walker    Carolyne Wright
Matthew Yeager    Dean Young

Commentary Poets 
 Beth Copeland    Camille Dungy    Dara Elerath    Melanie Figg    J.P. Grasser    
Jesse Graves    Jared Harél    Lois Marie Harrod    Tina Kelley    James Scruton
Sean Shearer    Craig van Rooyen    Sara Moore Wagner  

Bonus Prompt Poets 
Jeffrey Bean    Patricia Clark    Cat Doty    Caitlin Doyle    Jennifer Franklin
Joy Gaines-Friedler    Adele Kenny    Lance Larsen    Kerrin McCadden
Allison Joseph    J.C. Todd    BJ Ward    Michael T. Young

Sample Poem Poets
Tiel Aisha Ansari    KB Ballentine    Nina Bennett    Libby Bernardin    Nancy Susanna Breen
Ronda Piszk Broatch    Jayne Brown    Luanne Castle    Robin Rosen Chang    Robin Chapman
Kersten Christianson     Patricia Clark    Cathryn Colman    Gail Comorat    Geraldine Connolly
Jane Mary Curran    Jessica de Koninck    Maureen Doallas     Lynn Domina    Robert Fillman
Ann Fisher-Wirth    Emily Franklin    Deborah Gerrish    Holiday Goldfarb    Lucy Griffith
Penny Harter    Lisa Hase-Jackson    Shayla Hawkins    Andrea Hollander    Karen Paul Holmes
Jenny Hubbard    Christen Noel Kauffman    Tina Kelley    Adele Kenny    Jemshed Khan
Athena Kildegaard     Kim Klugh    Lynne Knight    Marcia LeBeau    Diane LeBlanc    Denise Low    
Charlotte Mandel    Joan Mazza    Maren Mitchell    Erin Murphy    Dion O’Reilly    
Jenna Rindo    Janet Ruth    Jennifer Saunders    Linda Simone    Kate Sontag    
​Betsy Thorne    Denise Utt    Lisken Van Pelt Dus    Kory Wells    Bruce Whitacre    
Scott Wiggerman    Shannon K. Winston    Elizabeth Wolf    Michael T. Young    Yvonne Zipter
 

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