ConFusion 2018: Poetry in Novels

(These are my lightly edited notes for a panel I participated in at the ConFusion Fantasy and Science Fiction Convention in January of 2018)

THE PANEL: Poetry in Novels (21 January 2018, 10:00)

PANELISTS: Amal El-Mohtar, Clif Flynt, Jeff Pryor, John Winkelman, Mari Ness

DESCRIPTION: “Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass include lengthy poems, placing them in a long tradition of long-form fiction that incorporates poetry into the work. How does writing poems for prose fiction differ from writing poems that stand alone? What distinct techniques does it require? Where do poems within stories exist in the landscape of genre poetry today?”

PRE-PANEL NOTES

• • Poetry in novels
    • Intrinsic to plot
    • Decoration
    • Framework
      • Michael Flynn
        • In the Lion’s Mouth
        • On the Razor’s Edge
    • Detail/worldbuilding

• • Books in verse
    • Homer – Odyssey
    • Homer – Iliad
    • Mahabharata
    • Ramayana
    • Epic of Gilgamesh
    • Beowulf
    • Michael Turner – Hard Core Logo
    • Alexander Pushkin – Eugene Onegin
    • Dante – Divine Comedy
  • Book-length poems
    • Evan S. Connell – Notes From a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel
    • Samuel Taylor Coleridge – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
    • Wallace Stevens – The Man with the Blue Guitar
    • Emmanuelle Pagano – Trysting

• See Also
  • Bob Dylan
• Thoughts
  • Book of poems
  • Book length poem
  • Novel in verse
  • Epic Poetry
• Resources
  • http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/defining-speculative-poetry-a-conversation-and-three-manifestos/
  • http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/speculative-poetry-know-science-fiction-fantasy-verse
  • http://www.sfpoetry.com/markets.html

PANEL NOTES

• Poetry can be time-shifted in relation to the story in which it appears
  • In situ, as a bard or skald composes a poem based on events as they are happening
  • Used to imply history/world-building for the setting. An epic poem is written between the time of the events which it recounts and the time in which it is read.
  • The poem itself can be placed in a specific place in history based on written style or language or word usage.
• Poetry can be used for world-building, either experienced by the characters or as related by the narrator.

MY THOUGHTS

Boy, did I over-think this one–in part because I love poetry, and in part because Amal El-Mohtar was also on the panel and I wanted to bring my “A” game.