Poetry is Normal Presents

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Poetry is Normal Presents Bob Broad and Michael Theune talking about their new book -

We Need To Talk: A New Method for Evaluating Poetry

Thank you to the Normal Public Library Foundation for supporting this event!

We evaluate poems constantly; as workshop leaders, competition judges, and journal editors. But how do we judge the success of verse in these contexts? The authors propose an innovative method by which anyone involved in the assessment of poetry can be more transparent about how they value verse. 

Bob Broad is a Professor of English at Illinois State University. He teaches graduate courses in writing assessment, pedagogy, writing studies, and research methods as well as undergraduate courses in writing, pedagogy, and English Studies. Bob co-wrote Organic Writing Assessment: Dynamic Criteria Mapping in Action (Utah State UP, 2009) and authored What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing (Utah State UP, 2003). His articles, book reviews, and book chapters have appeared in many journals and collections, most recently Graeme Harper's Creative Writing and Education (Multilingual Matters, 2015).

Michael Theune is a Professor of English and Writing Program Director at Illinois Wesleyan University. He teaches undergraduate creative writing and composition courses, and literature courses on British Romanticism and contemporary American poetry. Michael edited Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns (Teachers an Writers, 2007) and hosts the "Structure and Surprise" blog. He co-curated "Voltage Poetry," a website dedicated to the discussion of some of poetry's greatest turns, and is a founding editor of "The Keats Letters Project." His poetry, essays, book chapters, and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and collections, including Biddinger and Gallaher's The Monkey & the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics (U of Akron P, 2010).