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A series of workshops that will extend and complement your poetry writing.
Venues
PLEASE NOTE: we have been informed that the Queens Building Hall & Foyer will not be available for our use due to COVID restrictions. Most workshops will now be held in the WAPI Office (Level 2, Room 33. Bon Marche Arcade, 80 Barrack St Perth) with others being at Tom Collins House (80 Wood St, Swanbourne).
Cost per workshop
$30 Regular
$25 WA Poets Inc and Writers United members, Students and Pensioners.
$25 via Zoom (some workshops have the option of participating via Zoom)
To book workshops click on the link at the end of each workshop descriptor.
A booking fee applies to all purchases.
Workshops will involve written exercises, please bring appropriate materials.
These workshops take place on Whadjuk Noongar land. WAPI acknowledges the traditional custodians of this land and extend our respects to Elders past, present and future.
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Program
Saturday 19th Sept.
9.30–11am Who are You? Taonga Sendama
9.30–11am Haiku Targets Michael Dylan Welch
11.30am–1pm Poetic Form: What is it and What’s it to You? Annamaria Weldon & Dennis Haskell
11.30am–1pm Weaving Words Anne-Marie Te Whiu
Sunday 20th Sept.
9.30–11am Looking for the Narrative Mike Williams
11.30am–1pm Erasure Fable Goldsmith
Friday 25th Sept.
9.30–11am Take a Walk on the haiku Side (ginko) Michael Dylan Welch
Saturday 26th Sept.
9.30–11am Healing Through the Power of Poetry Samantha Melia
11.30am–1pm Page meets Stage David Stavanger
Sunday 27th Sept.
9.30–11am haiku on Steroids Michael Dylan Welch
11.30am–1pm The Poetry of Things David McCooey cancelled for personal reasons
Venues
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Who are You?
Taonga Sendama
Saturday 19th Sept.
9.30–11.00am
Tom Collins House
“Where are you from?”
“Are you a girl or a boy?”
“Who are you, really?”
When presented with these kinds of questions we often answer with … where do I begin?
This workshop examines the concept of ‘self’ as a multifaceted, growing identity and how, even as individuals, we are still tethered to ‘community’.
In the first section, participants will be encouraged to create honest and unflinching poetry that focuses on their intersections of self. This will be done by placing focus on the significance of naming that which has shaped them. In the second section, participants will ground themselves by discussing and writing about the communities that have shaped them. In both sections, you will receive guided prompts to aid your writing while examining and upholding the voices and stories of poets who identify as QTPOC (queer trans people / poets of colour).
Produced as a result of reflection during an extended period of solitude, this workshop invites you to re-examine the idea of self as an entirely individualistic practice and instead take a moment to reflect to reflect on all the things that shape us into who we are.
To book click here
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Haiku Targets
Michael Dylan Welch (Michael will present this workshop via Zoom)
Saturday 19th Sept.
9.30–11.00am
WAPI Office
What do you shoot for when you write haiku? This class, led by Michael Dylan Welch, explores the targets to aim for, and why 5-7-5 is not necessarily one of them—learn why 5-7-5 is a sort of urban myth for writing haiku in English, and why other techniques (not “rules”) such as season words and a two-part structure are better targets to aim for in writing these brief poems of personal experience.
This workshop is suitable for the complete novice and those who wish to spruce up their understanding and practice of haiku. Includes writing exercises and sharing/feedback as time allows.
To book click here
To participate in this workshop via Zoom click here
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Poetic Form: What is it and What’s it to You?
Annamaria Weldon & Dennis Haskell
Saturday 19th Sept.
11.30am–1.00pm
Tom Collins House
The history of English language poetry has seen a gradual loosening of formal poetic requirements. This was given such momentum by the Modernist revolution that most contemporary poetry is written in free verse, and there is a strong contemporary movement promoting prose poetry. This may make it seem that contemporary poetry has no formal requirements at all but that is simply not true. All poetry has elements of form that don’t apply to prose, and different forms will suit different poems, according to subject matter, tone and authorial stance.
This workshop will discuss contemporary poetic form, the reasons for the shift from traditional stanza and rhyme, and the formal elements that best suit draft poems submitted by participants.
To book click here
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Weaving Words
or ‘where does it start’ and where will we go
Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Annie will present this workshop via Zoom)
Saturday 19th Sept.
11.30am–1.00pm
WAPI Office
Maraea Rakuraku’s poem, ‘Where does it start?’ poses a question, both about the poem and our own existence. Rakuraku addresses the question in the poem, and gently provokes us to respond, as we are the you in her poem.
when the idea of you was born
that started
with the idea of you.
This poetry workshop with Anne-Marie Te Whiu invites participants to consider concepts including ‘beginnings’, ‘starts’ and importantly, ‘the idea of you’. But, rather than consider such ideas and their relationship to creativity as introspective, insular and solitary, we will consider the self, poetry and poetry making in consideration with other creative/craft activities and the vital role of the relationship between writing, socialisation and collaboration.
Participants who have a craft beyond words, such as photography, ceramics, painting etc, are strongly encouraged to have samples of their artwork available as these will be discussed, shared and woven as prompts throughout the workshop.
To book click here
To participate in this workshop via Zoom click here
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Looking for the Narrative
Mike Williams
Unfortunately this workshop has been canceled due to Mike being unavailable because of health reasons.
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Erasure
Fable Goldsmith
Sunday 20th Sept.
11.30am–1.30pm
WAPI Office
This workshop would be beneficial to any person interested in creating new work, no previous experience is necessary.
1st Hour – Blackout/erasure poetry. Here participants will learn the art of erasure poetry. Each participant will be given the same page of words and here we will find that our own experiences act to shape the way we speak. Participants will be encouraged to share their erasure poems with the group
2nd Hour—Form poetry. Here, Fable will provide you with some examples of form and Participants will be encouraged to select and write to a form of their choice.
By the end of this workshop participants should expect to have at least 2 new works.
To book click here
To participate in this workshop via Zoom click here
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Take a Walk on the haiku Side (ginko)
Michael Dylan Welch (Michael will present this workshop via Zoom)
Friday 25th Sept.
9.30am–11.00am
Kings Park (meet 9.15am at the Wildflower Pavilion near the Boab Tree)
Join Michael Dylan Welch for a directed haiku-writing amble (known as a “ginko”) through King’s Park. We’ll explore the sights and sounds while paying attention to our five senses, writing and sharing poems and discussing the experience together as a stepping stone to developing a regular haiku practice.
This workshop is open to all people but some understanding of haiku would be an advantage.
To book click here
To participate in this workshop via Zoom click here
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Healing Through the Power of Poetry
Expressing the subconscious mind through poetry.
Samantha Melia
Saturday 26th Sept.
9.30–11.00am
WAPI Office
“Everywhere l go as a scientist, l find that a poet has beaten me there”
Sigmund Freud.
We always reach for poetry in big moments in our lives, when we fall in love, or lose our loved ones to death, immigration, rejection, etc. As we leave one stage of life and enter another, poetry is needed to understand, to accept, to offer hope. We do what we do to process what’s happening in the storm of emotional pleasure and pain. We write poetry.
We all have a story to tell. A unique interpretation of the world around us because of the world within us. By writing we increase our self-awareness, heal emotional wounds and make sense of our lives. By finding our voice and sharing our truth we focus on what’s important and determine our reason for being. This leads to a profound sense of contentment.
At the beginning of this workshop we will examine six poems that are great examples of expressing deep authentic emotion and from this offer healing and hope through the power of poetry.
Following, in the workshop we will write a story that is uniquely you through a writing activity where we write in a stream of consciousness form. It is a way to tap into the subconscious mind and tap into our own inner authentic thoughts and voice. It also taps into the heart centre, allowing us to get the bones of our poem which can be edited and fleshed out at a later date.
You will come out of this workshop with the story only you can tell, a soulful, creative expression. A piece of authentic work using the power of metaphor, image, sound and rhythm, filled with integrity, that can touch, move and inspire all who experience it. In this way mindfulness practice is nurtured, we cultivate self-awareness, find our voice and get into the writing zone.
To book click here
To participate in this workshop via Zoom click here
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Page meets Stage
David Stavanger (David will present this workshop via Zoom)
Saturday 26th Sept.
11.30am–1.00pm
WAPI Office
Unfortunately this workshop has been cancelled for personal reasons. WA Poets apologises for the inconvenience.
When we make “Spoken Word” a noun, it encompasses text and music. Performance Poetry, Live Poetry, Living Poetry, Performed Poetry, Hip Hop, Spoken Word; it is here you find that hollow muscular organ keeping poetry alive. Andrew Galan, APJ 8.2 Spoken
Spoken word is often urgent, visceral, ephemeral and at times redemptive. It is also a valid part of contemporary print poetry. How can you contain that fire within the constraints of the page without putting it out? Why is there even a need to define or limit your poetry practice to either the page or stage?
This workshop focuses on ways to distil and reshape performance poetry for the print medium (and vice versa), ways of editing spoken word for the page, and working on poems utilising the limits, possibilities, and strengths at the intersection of both forms.
It will also explore publishing opportunities for spoken word, and participants will be encouraged to submit a piece prior to the workshop.
This workshop is suited for all but especially poets who work across both the page and stage.
Recommended reading: SOLID AIR: Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word
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haiku on Steroids
Michael Dylan Welch (Michael will present this workshop via Zoom)
Sunday 27th Sept.
9.30–11.00am
WAPI Office
An advanced workshop led by Michael Dylan Welch that explores rule-breaking, taboo topics, and other creative and energizing approaches to writing and appreciating haiku. What did Bashō mean by “Learn the rules and then forget them”? What do you have to learn, and how do you forget?
This workshop is suitable for all persons with an interest in haiku but a level of understanding and experience would be advantageous.
To book click here
To participate in this workshop via Zoom click here
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The Poetry of Things
David McCooey
Sunday 27th Sept.
11.30am–1.30pm
WAPI Office
Unfortunately this workshop has been cancelled for personal reasons. WA Poets apologises for the inconvenience.
We live in a world of things. This workshop is concerned with how we can use poetic language to make the most ordinary of things compelling. As such, it is about how poetry can help us attend to the world around us in new ways. It also gives one answer to the question all poets have to deal with every time they write: ‘What can we write poems about?’ The simple answer to this question is ‘anything’. Poets have long written about historical or mythical events (such as the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad), and they have also written about abstract ideas (such as love), and emotional experiences (such as being in love). But the world around us is made up of things, and indeed we ourselves have a material existence, so that while we are (thinking and feeling) ‘human subjects’, our material condition means we share, however ambiguously, the material realm in which objects exist.
In this workshop we will think about this shared realm as a source of a ‘poetry of things’, and we will learn how to write a ‘thing poem’ (or ‘dinggedicht’ as it is sometimes called). In learning to write such a poem, we will learn different ways in which poets can represent things through various types of stylisation, and understand how (and why) poetic language can engage in the literary technique of ‘defamiliarisation’.
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Venues
Mattie Furphy House Claire Copse, Swanbourne
Tom Collins House 80 Wood St, Swanbourne
WAPI Office Room 33, Level 2 Bon Marche Arcade. 80 Barrack St, Perth
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The 2020 Perth Poetry Festival acknowledges the support of the Western Australian State Government, through BE Perth, and receives funds from Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australia Cultural Fund. This Festival is supported by;
