In this course, we’ll explore the work of four writers contemporary to each other, week by week: Larry Levis, Carl Phillips, Ada Limón and Brigit Pegeen Kelly.  We’ll spend time together learning about what makes them the celebrated writers they are—what formal choices they might be making on the page, and how their unique styles as poets create a singular quality to their work.  Each course session will have a short orienting lecture, and the balance of the time will be more conversational in nature, following student feedback and questions arising from the course reading.  In surveying these four poets, students will gain a framework for approaching contemporary poetry and develop skills that can be broadly applied to other work.