Writing the Unreliable Speaker

Most of us are acquainted with the concept from fiction of the unreliable narrator, but this concept is far less explored in the world of poetry. Writing towards this kind of slipperiness allows poems to occupy complex spaces of memory, creating alternate, winding pathways through the poem's story. In this class, we will be analyzing the work of poets whose speakers lie, misremember, redirect and rewrite their narratives, before attempting to write our own unreliable poems. Some of the class's model texts will include by Sam Sax, John Murillo, and Jeanann Verlee.

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TORRIN A. GREATHOUSE is a transgender cripple-punk poet and essayist. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota. Her work has been featured in , and . She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Effing Foundation for Sex Positivity, Zoeglossia, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. Her…