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Odyssey January 28, January 28, WednesdayMoser, Time, Creative Writing, OdysseyCourse Title: Against the Clock: The Sense of TimeInstructor: Chase Atherton, A&S ’19 (MFA)Brought to you by Odyssey  January 28th - March 4, 2026Wednesdays, 5:30PM - 7:30PM ET (6 Sessions)Virtual via ZoomCourse Description: What does it mean to live inside time? This six-week seminar explores how writers have imagined, embodied, and resisted time across centuries and genres. Moving from the industrial age’s “clock time” to the digital era’s dizzying acceleration, we’ll read fiction, poetry, and theory that challenge our assumptions about duration, progress, and the present. Authors such as Virginia Woolf, W.H. Auden, Édouard Glissant, Lucille Clifton, and Annie Ernaux reveal how power, gender, technology, and biology shape our temporal experience. Alongside thinkers from Marx to Foucault and Kristeva, we’ll consider how literature opens counter-cultural doorways into the lived texture of time—its loops, ruptures, and renewals. The course culminates in a creative workshop inviting participants to craft original works inspired by their own encounters with time. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________Johns Hopkins Tuition Remission Policies Tuition benefits are available to University faculty, staff, and retirees only. Employees of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, or the Applied Physics Laboratory should contact your institution’s Human Resources office for information about tuition remission and eligibility:Johns Hopkins Hospitals and Medical Institutions: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/human-resources/benefits/tuition-assistanceJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: https://www.jhuapl.edu/careers/professional-developmentSelect the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your university eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for each course. Complete eligibility details can be found here.Withdrawals & Refunds:If a course is canceled or closed, the registrant is notified immediately, and a full refund is processed automatically unless another course is requested. Registrants who wish to withdraw from an active course must complete the online Odyssey Refund Request Form. Attach any documentation to support your request (e.g., medical documentation, family crisis documentation, etc.).100% refund: Prior to the start of the course and after the first class.No refunds: After the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases.For single-session courses:100% refundable within two (2) business days of the event.Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within five (5) business days.against-the-clock-the-sense-of-t
 Jan 28, 2026
 05:30 PM EST
Against the Clock: The Sense of Time with Chase Atherton, A&S ’19 (MFA)
Odyssey January 29, January 29, ThursdayOdyssey, Moser, Creative WritingCourse Title: Masks and MirrorsInstructor: Jalen Eutsey, A&S '18 (MFA)Brought to you by Odyssey  January 29 - March 5, 2026Thursdays, 6:00PM - 8:00PM ET (6 Sessions)Virtual via ZoomCourse Description: In this course, we will experiment with techniques to explore the depth of our individual subjectivity, examining ourselves without losing sight of the outside world that grounds and connects us. We will consider the power of metaphor, allusion, and connotation as vehicles for expressing deeply held emotions. Funneling our most urgent concerns through the imaginative landscapes of pop culture, literature, nature, and history can allow us to speak without revealing intimate details of our lives. By engaging in a variety of generative experiments, we’ll embrace the use of metaphorical masks and mirrors, inviting different voices—different “selves”—into our work. We’ll push our “I” to be a flexible, shape-shifting “eye” capable of looking all around us.We will seek inspiration from acclaimed poets such as Ross Gay, Terrance Hayes, Jaswinder Bolina, Patricia Smith, Louise Glück, Elizabeth Bishop, francine j. harris, Mary Ruefle, Michael Dumanis, and David Berman._____________________________________________________________________________________________________Johns Hopkins Tuition Remission Policies Tuition benefits are available to University faculty, staff, and retirees only. Employees of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, or the Applied Physics Laboratory should contact your institution’s Human Resources office for information about tuition remission and eligibility:Johns Hopkins Hospitals and Medical Institutions: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/human-resources/benefits/tuition-assistanceJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: https://www.jhuapl.edu/careers/professional-developmentSelect the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your university eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for each course. Complete eligibility details can be found here.Withdrawals & Refunds:If a course is canceled or closed, the registrant is notified immediately, and a full refund is processed automatically unless another course is requested. Registrants who wish to withdraw from an active course must complete the online Odyssey Refund Request Form. Attach any documentation to support your request (e.g., medical documentation, family crisis documentation, etc.).100% refund: Prior to the start of the course and after the first class.No refunds: After the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases.For single-session courses:100% refundable within two (2) business days of the event.Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within five (5) business days.masks-and-mirrors-with-jalen-eut
 Jan 29, 2026
 06:00 PM EST
Masks and Mirrors with Jalen Eutsey, A&S '18 (MFA)
 Location
Odyssey Link Provided with Registration
NA Odyssey January 31, January 31, SaturdayOdyssey, Moser, Creative WritingCourse Title: The Many Voices of Louise Glück Instructor: Nathan Blansett, A&S ’21 (MFA)Brought to you by Odyssey  January 31 - March 7, 2026Saturdays, 3:00PM - 5:00PM ET (6 Sessions)Virtual via ZoomCourse Description: In 2020, when the Swedish Academy named the American poet Louise Glück as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, they cited her “unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” Glück’s consistent themes (as she put it, “the great human subjects: time which breeds loss, desire, the world’s beauty”) earned her many honors and many readers, yet her thirteen books of poems showcase a protean, ever-changing way of writing. This course will reckon with the lasting gift of Glück’s many unmistakable voices.Over six weeks, we’ll proceed chronologically through Glück’s oeuvre, briefly attending to the strained performances of Firstborn (1968), her debut she came to disavow. We’ll then turn our attention to the mythic and haunted personae of her more sophisticated early books, like The House on Marshland (1975) and Descending Figure (1980). Afterward, we’ll compare and contrast the astringent Ararat (1990) with the dazzling polyphony of The Wild Iris (1993) and the real tragicomedy that is Meadowlands (1997), alongside other books from Glück’s middle period, including Vita Nova (1999) and Averno (2006). We’ll finish our course closely reading Glück’s late work—from the meditative and novelistic A Village Life (2009) to the spare and strange Winter Recipes from the Collective (2021), her final volume, where “the world goes by, / all the worlds, each more beautiful than the last.”Our journey through Glück’s poems will be punctuated by relevant selections from her literary criticism and autobiographical prose. In addition, there will be opportunities to create original work inspired by what we read, shared voluntarily for peer and instructor feedback._____________________________________________________________________________________________________Johns Hopkins Tuition Remission Policies Tuition benefits are available to University faculty, staff, and retirees only. Employees of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, or the Applied Physics Laboratory should contact your institution’s Human Resources office for information about tuition remission and eligibility:Johns Hopkins Hospitals and Medical Institutions: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/human-resources/benefits/tuition-assistanceJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: https://www.jhuapl.edu/careers/professional-developmentSelect the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your university eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for each course. Complete eligibility details can be found here.Withdrawals & Refunds:If a course is canceled or closed, the registrant is notified immediately, and a full refund is processed automatically unless another course is requested. Registrants who wish to withdraw from an active course must complete the online Odyssey Refund Request Form. Attach any documentation to support your request (e.g., medical documentation, family crisis documentation, etc.).100% refund: Prior to the start of the course and after the first class.No refunds: After the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases.For single-session courses:100% refundable within two (2) business days of the event.Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within five (5) business days.the-many-voices-of-louise-gluck
 Jan 31, 2026
 03:00 PM EST
The Many Voices of Louise Glück with Nathan Blansett, A&S ’21 (MFA)
Odyssey March 23, March 23, MondayMoser, Odyssey, Creative WritingCourse Title: Clarity and Complexity of Poems with Gabriella Fee, A&S '22 (MFA)Instructor: Gabriella Fee, A&S '22 (MFA) and Moser Writer in ResidenceBrought to you by Odyssey  March 23 - April 27, 2026Mondays, 12:00PM - 2:00PM ET (6 Sessions)Virtual via ZoomCourse Description: In this six-week course, we'll read, discuss, and write poems that are concerned with the relationship between clarity and complexity. In a world of mystery and chaos, how do we (and why should we) be concerned with clarity and precision? How might a poet concerned with communicating something "true" about human experience contend with ambivalence, ambiguity, and uncertainty? Together we'll explore prosodic and formal strategies for enhancing both the clarity and complexity of our work. We'll discuss what makes certain poems unclear and what makes others vivid and precise even as they take mystery and confusion as their very subjects.Together, we'll dive into poems from the 16th century to the present, with a primary focus on work from the latter half of the 20th century. We'll encounter Louis MacNeice, Renee Gladman, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Jericho Brown, Emily Dickinson, WH Auden, Tracy K Smith, James Wright, Amy Clampitt, Derek Walcott, James Dickey, Sharon Olds, Major Jackson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Alexander, and many others.We'll also read and discuss craft essays by writers such as Ellen Bryant Voigt, Donald Justice, Carl Phillips, John Frederick Nims, Kathleen Jamie, John Shoptaw, and Jane Hirschfield.The course will culminate in a one-day workshop, during which students will have the opportunity to share their own writing and receive feedback from their instructor and their peers._____________________________________________________________________________________________________Johns Hopkins Tuition Remission Policies Tuition benefits are available to University faculty, staff, and retirees only. Employees of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, or the Applied Physics Laboratory should contact your institution’s Human Resources office for information about tuition remission and eligibility:Johns Hopkins Hospitals and Medical Institutions: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/human-resources/benefits/tuition-assistanceJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: https://www.jhuapl.edu/careers/professional-developmentSelect the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your university eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for each course. Complete eligibility details can be found here.Withdrawals & Refunds:If a course is canceled or closed, the registrant is notified immediately, and a full refund is processed automatically unless another course is requested. Registrants who wish to withdraw from an active course must complete the online Odyssey Refund Request Form. Attach any documentation to support your request (e.g., medical documentation, family crisis documentation, etc.).100% refund: Prior to the start of the course and after the first class.No refunds: After the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases.For single-session courses:100% refundable within two (2) business days of the event.Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within five (5) business days.clarity-and-complexity-of-poems
 Mar 23, 2026
 12:00 PM EDT
Clarity and Complexity of Poems with Gabriella Fee, A&S '22 (MFA)
Odyssey March 24, March 24, TuesdayOdyssey. Moser, Creative WritingCourse Title: From Meiji to Murakami: Japanese Short Stories from the 20th and 21st CenturiesInstructor: Pheobe Oathout, A&S ’23 (MFA)Brought to you by Odyssey  March 24 - April 28, 2026Tuesdays, 7:00PM - 9:00PM ET (6 Sessions)Virtual via ZoomCourse Description: “Meiji to Murakami” is a course available to continuing education students looking to study a literary aesthetic while playing with it in quick, individual exercises. All texts will be read in English translations.For readers and writers alike, this course explores the art of the Japanese short story—from the campy humor of old masters to the delicate experimentation of contemporaries. The goals of this course are to introduce students to twentieth and twenty-first century Japanese short prose, and to create work that engages with the styles and concepts of these writers. As we read, students will reflect on several questions: How has Japanese identity, statehood, and culture been represented over the years? How have writers grappled with Westernization while still remaining distinctly Japanese? How do these works respond to the growing popularity of Japanese culture abroad while resisting maudlin narratives about samurai and seppuku? Do the pieces we read about 9-to-5 office dread feel distinct from how Americans discuss wage labor?Weekly topics will include Japan and the West, The Comedy of Japanese Manners, Reimagining the Samurai, Modern Life and Office Dread, Postwar Reckoning, and Natural versus Manmade Calamities. Stories we read will include “Rashōmon” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “Town of Cats” by Haruki Murakami, “The Victim” by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and “The Silver Fifty-Sen Pieces” by Yasunari Kawabata, among others.As we reflect on these topics, students will write short-short fiction or nonfiction that draws upon the aesthetics and sensibilities of the authors we read. These pieces may be flash pieces or beginnings of longer work, produced during class time and not required to share publicly—although students will be given the opportunity to if they like._____________________________________________________________________________________________________Johns Hopkins Tuition Remission Policies Tuition benefits are available to University faculty, staff, and retirees only. Employees of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, or the Applied Physics Laboratory should contact your institution’s Human Resources office for information about tuition remission and eligibility:Johns Hopkins Hospitals and Medical Institutions: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/human-resources/benefits/tuition-assistanceJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: https://www.jhuapl.edu/careers/professional-developmentSelect the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your university eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for each course. Complete eligibility details can be found here.Withdrawals & Refunds:If a course is canceled or closed, the registrant is notified immediately, and a full refund is processed automatically unless another course is requested. Registrants who wish to withdraw from an active course must complete the online Odyssey Refund Request Form. Attach any documentation to support your request (e.g., medical documentation, family crisis documentation, etc.).100% refund: Prior to the start of the course and after the first class.No refunds: After the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases.For single-session courses:100% refundable within two (2) business days of the event.Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within five (5) business days.from-meiji-to-murakami-japanese
 Mar 24, 2026
 07:00 PM EDT
From Meiji to Murakami: Japanese Short Stories from the 20th and 21st Centuries with Pheobe Oathout, A&S ’23 (MFA)