Al Filreis Blog

KWH/CPCW win “Draw Down the Lightning” grant

Here is an article about a new grant. At an energizing reception held at the University Meeting and Guest House, members of the 12 winning teams of the inaugural Draw Down the Lightning grants broke bread while sharing ideas, celebrating successes, and thinking about the challenges ahead—literally embodying the collaborative...

A 90-minute conversation with Gerry Fialka

On April 16 I was interviewed by Gerry Fialka for 90 minutes—about poetry, intersubjectivity, education, and medium-over-message. It’s a YouTube series called “InnerViews” and my conversation is episode 612.

Gertrude Stein in Morocco

I had the honor of convening a collaborative close reading with students at Ibn Zohr University in Morocco yesterday. Their teacher, Professor El Habib Louai, is a friend of contemporary poets and poetry teachers and critics—of PoemTalk and ModPo. He has been interested in the collaborative close reading method. Yesterday,...

Student generations

Family Weekend. Another moment for realizing how long I’ve been doing this work and how deep & sustained many of my relationships are. Here I am yesterday with Rachel, who was my student and advisee in the early 1990s, and Josh, her son, who is currently my student and my...

Thomas Devaney’s “Poem—for Al Filreis”

I was honored, on the occasion of my 50th birthday, to hear—and then later to read in print, in Jubilat—a poem by Tom Devaney dedicated to me. I like to think that it’s a wonderful poem regardless of my grateful feelings about its dedication and fine memories of the party...