24PearlStreet Workshops and Events
ASYNCHRONOUS
Comedy and poetry have much in common. They both transform highly subjective sensory experiences into transcendent social responses. And they both create surprise—the Yahtzee of all social responses—which motivates us to re-engage with increasingly complex tasks and environments. In this generative workshop, we will explore theories of how humor works alongside examples of comedic poems and poetic stand-ups. In daily exercises, we will test drive rhetorical tools used by stand-ups and humor writers such as exaggerations, self-depreciation, contradictions, and meta-statements, which can move your readers from laughter to awe.
Biography
Jennifer L. Knox is the author of five books of poems: Crushing It, Days of Shame & Failure, The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway, Drunk by Noon, and A Gringo Like Me. Known for their dark, imaginative humor, her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeney’s, five times in The Best American Poetry series, and The 2022 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses anthology. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She has taught poetry writing classes at New York University, Hunter College, 24PearlStreet FAWC, and the Iowa Summer Writers Festival. Jennifer lives in central Iowa, where she is the proprietor of a tiny spice blend company called Saltlickers.
