From the time of its mid-twentieth century origins, a feature of confessional poetry has been the willingness to jolt or disturb, to cast caution and decency on a shit pile. But after more than a hundred years of taboo busting angst, is there anything left to expose? And if we are now ‘all’ confessionals, how do you keep it frank? For years, critics have warned of the ‘death’ of the novel and painting. Is confessionalism’s time also kaput? In this workshop we will explore the history and topography of confessionalism, before considering one way forward: Jenny Bornholdt’s The Rocky Shore (a collection of autobiographical verse-essays written largely in couplets of regular four and five beat lines). After the workshop participants will have the opportunity to engage with Phillip as editor in their own experiments in this field.
This is a Zoom workshop, scheduled for Saturday, 1 October from 10am to Noon.
After you register, you will be emailed the Zoom link closer to the date.
This workshop will focus on how poets move poems between the physical world into the interior of the poet. It will examine how we cross the threshold between the natural world and the emotional state of the writer, and how language and form become the vehicle for this lyrical manoeuvrer.
Peter Ramm is a poet and teacher who writes on the Gundungarra lands of the NSW Southern Highlands. His debut poetry collection Waterlines will be out with Vagabond Press in 2022. His poetry has appeared in Cordite, Westerly, The Rialto, Plumwood Mountain, Eureka Street and the Red Room Company.
Peter will be presenting virtually on Zoom on Sunday, October 2nd from 10am to Noon. More details will be emailed to registrants closer to the date.
What is poetry? What is travel poetry? How might other poets’ imagination and experience of travel inspire writing in this genre? This workshop will explore those questions as participants also share ideas and identify good poetic techniques for this type of writing. Participants will be asked to join in and write in an online environment that will use a variety of stimuli and structures.
Wednesday, 5 October, 7-9 p.m.
This workshop will be presented online via Zoom. More details will be emailed to registrants closer to the date.
This workshop will look at cross-genre works and elements of maneuvering between genres for the poet to explore formats, memory, genres, structures, aesthetics, etc. This workshop will encourage use of cross-genre poetics as a means of experimenting with one's own poetic practice.
Friday, 7 October, 7-9 p.m.
This workshop will be presented online via Zoom. More details will be emailed to registrants closer to the date.
Looking closely at a selection of contemporary Australian poems we will discuss and create our own work exploring the notion of how poems are stitched together. We will dive in, discuss and make use of techniques and manoeuvres used by these poets, with the aim to discover the mismatched stitches, the seams and inner workings that illustrate what the poem/poet seeks to represent.
Friday, 30 September from 3-5pm
This workshop will be presented online via Zoom. More details will be emailed to registrants closer to the date.
