Poetry Consultations with Claudia Cortese

When reading your work,  I will point out where I see it most succeeding—where it pops and sings and electrifies the page—and where I see it most struggling—where it falls flat or turns dull. There are many literary traditions—from hip-hop to confessional poetry to fabulism, to name just a few—and though all artists have biases and aesthetic preferences, I will work hard to not get so mired in my own tastes that I cannot see beyond them. In other words, I will try to understand the traditions and aesthetics that inspire you, even if they are not my own aesthetics and traditions. I often get most excited by artists who write in ways I never could—succeed in ways I often fail.

I will offer both micro-level comments about diction, rhythm, lines, imagery, and so on, and macro-level comments about the issues and themes your poems constellate around. I love hybrid work and I myself write in many genres, so please feel free to submit even if your poems are not strictly, well, poems! The writers I draw the most inspiration from—Nickole Brown, Claudia Rankine, Adrienne Rich, Khadijah Queen, Carmen Maria Machado, to name a few—write at the intersection of multiple genres.

In addition to written comments on each piece and at the end of your manuscript, I will provide you with a link to a short video in which I discuss your work.

I look forward to reading your poems!