The Semester
The Workbook On The Art Of Living On The Art
Paperback & Cohorts Forthcoming
Pre-Order The Digital PDF Workbook For A 50% Discount
Author: Poet Geoff Anderson
Free Preview Of Modules 1 & 2
What is the
Semester Workbook:
What's In The Book?
If you are a poet or practitioner of another artistic discipline,
there may be a question buried in the back of your mind:
is it possible to live on art?
The answer may be yes, and it may be yes
without compromise, without corruption,
with compassion, and with creativity.
The Semester is a guide to creating your new poetry thesis
96 pages of exercises, questions, planning, and frameworks
to build an offer--your poetry thesis--and a platform
on social media, a website, or wherever you wish
to use your poetry in the service of others.
LIVE
ON
POETRY
What This Is Not
If you want to live on your poetry or other art tomorrow, this is not the approach.
To create our poetry thesis in a sustainable way, we will create not only a poetry thesis
-- what you offer to the world -- but an entire platform. This takes time; we are thinking months to years ahead, not days. If you are averse to social media or content creation (you will need to choose either blog/articles/writing, videos, podcasts, or photos for your platform), this is not the textbook for you.
What This Is
A roadmap to go from having work that is invisible to having a platform people turn to for a specific goal. This is especially suited for artists who have had the idea of being independent with their art -- escaping from Corporate Poetry -- but have been unsure of the first step to take.
96 Pages / 10 Modules / 41 Exercises
Module 1: Determine The Focus
Module 2: Prepare The Focus
Module 3: Know Who You Help
Module 4: Assess The Quality
Module 5: Messaging
Module 6: The Poetry Thesis
Module 7: Getting The Word Out
Module 8: Polishing Production
Module 9: Collaboration
Module 10: Booking
All Based On Author
Poet Geoff Anderson's
Experience Teaching
Communication
Through Poetry
My name is Geoff Anderson. I am a poet who had a chapbook twice rejected as a finalist over a few months by the same judge.
The rejections were among the best events to happen to me. I suddenly woke up.
I questioned why I gave away the future of my art to people who know nothing about the work’s goals and intentions. Since then, I have decided to show up in all spaces as a poet, whether I am teaching, or parenting, or in the company of friends, or with poets.
This has meant that it is necessary for me to create a livelihood from poetry. I am proud to say that over a third of the communication classes I teach are using poetry as base material. Even today, when I tell people I help poets live on poetry, I am met with skepticism. The narrative around most artists is that the art is for the side.
Yet for me, poetry is a vehicle for guiding my students to better communication and spoken performance. I found my art
not solely fulfilling for my own creativity, but the lives of others, and how to do so without compromise.
This is less to say that your path will look like mine, and more that there are many paths towards creative and financial independence.
This manual is for poets who not only believe in the creative force of poetry, but also its financial force. The exercises we are set to embark on can be applied to small side offers that cover groceries for a month. However, the principles can scale to become large enough to replace full-time work. We will consider the offer you create around poetry to be the thesis of the Semester.
Let’s begin to live on poetry, however you want to live on poetry.