Jericho Brown, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, led a student poetry workshop at Washington College on April 8. The event took place at the Rose O’Neill Literary House and focused on guiding students through creating their own duplex poems, a poetic form Brown invented.
The workshop offered students an opportunity to engage directly with a renowned poet and experiment with new forms of writing. This approach is part of the Literary House’s tradition of bringing prominent writers to campus for both readings and hands-on sessions with students.
James Hall, director of the Lit House, said, “The hallmark of the Literary House series is that the literary stars we bring for readings also are excited to engage meaningfully with our fabulous students. This tradition is robust and dates back to at least 1987, when Toni Morrison visited to read from the galleys of Beloved and met one-on-one with students about their own writing.”
During the session, Brown explained how he created the duplex form by combining elements from sonnets, blues poems, and ghazals. He encouraged participants to use lines they had previously written but never used by cutting them out on pieces of paper and rearranging them into couplets. “I can now make a duplex without cutting up any paper, although I still make them on cut paper because cutting up paper puts you in a position where you can make different kinds of discoveries that you won’t make if you’re just trying to generate,” Brown said.
Seth Horan ’26 attended despite usually writing prose. He said: “I really enjoyed Jericho’s presence—very engaging. This was one of the more engaging events I’ve been to.”
Brown emphasized juxtaposition in poetry: “When I think about juxtaposition, I think about putting two things together that have nothing to do with each other but that become necessary to one another once you… see them together.” He also told attendees: “That’s why these forms exist. They are asking after you… for your participation.”
After reading examples aloud and guiding participants through arranging their lines into couplets using repetition and rhyme patterns unique to duplexes, every attendee completed their own poem by session’s end. Several shared their work aloud.
Reflecting on his lifelong relationship with poetry during his visit as part of the Robert Earl Price Poetry Festival (formerly Kent County Poetry Festival), Brown said: “Poetry was everywhere…when I was growing up… It seemed to me a fine idea… because it did so much work in my heart and so much work to me. Reading poems, I learned a lot about science; I learned a lot about love.”
Hall concluded: “The workshop was rousing and fun… not just because Jericho is an excellent teacher but also because of the communal feel … finding juxtaposition and tension that provided new ways of seeing our poems.”
