Through readings, discussion, research, presentations, exercises, experientials, and community engagement, students will explore contemporary avant-garde poetics, literary movements, small press and independent publishing cultures, performance and interdisciplinary practices, and the living traditions that continue to shape the field. Working within a cohort-based learning environment, the instructor will guide our first semester MFA students in exploring contemporary avant-garde poetics, literary communities, living experimental traditions and lineages, and the broader cultural conversations that inform innovative writing today.