http://abroadwritersconference.com/2015-2/dublin-ireland-dec-12-19-2015/
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Butler's Townhouse, Dublin |
The authors I am truly honoured to be teaching (or reading) beside are:
JOHN BANVILLE — MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER and FRANZE KAFKA Prize
KEVIN BARRY — EUROPEAN UNION PRIZE for LITERATURE and ROONEY PRIZE for Irish Literature
JOHN BOYNE — #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
MARY COSTELLO — THE BEST IRISH BOOK OF 2014
MEDBH MCGUCKIAN - Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize, ROONEY PRIZE, short-listed POETRY NOW
JACQUELYN MITCHARD — #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller, BRAM STOKER Award and THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD
JOSIP NOVAKOVICH - 2013 MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST
RUTH PADEL – 5 time winner of UK National Poetry Competition, shortlisted TS Eliot Prize
ETHEL ROHAN — BRYAN MacMAHON SHORT STORY AWARD winner
ETHEL ROHAN — BRYAN MacMAHON SHORT STORY AWARD winner
GABRIELLE SELZ — 2015 BEST MEMOIR AWARD, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF JOURNALIST & AUTHORS
BRITT TISDALE STATON - Psychotherapist and Creativity Consultant
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Here's a brief outline of the Workshop I will be giving at the conference on 17-18th December, 2015
“Gravity’s
Angel”
This workshop is aimed
at those who have already written poetry and would like to explore in more depth
both the general strategies that can be applied to approaching subject matter and
the more technical aspects of how the music of the poem can be used to ‘enact’
the meaning of the work. The morning sessions will be devoted to exploring
certain key concepts, using examples from poems as the basis for discussion
among the participants, the spirit of which will be far more interactive than
didactic. The afternoon sessions will be given over to work-shopping individual
poems put forward by members of the group. The main thing is that there will be
a relaxed ambiance through both morning and afternoon session and that we all
enjoy it!
DAY 1: ‘Stillness, Movement’
In this session I’d
like to explore the ways in which the music of poetry (rhythm and
sound) can help to enact the ‘meaning’ of a given piece, including rhythmic
techniques to create harmony or tension (or both at different points) in a
poem, and musical techniques that again aid in reflecting the feeling, subject
and tone of a given work.
DAY 2: ‘Image &
Idea’
This session will focus
on the ways in which concepts can be explored in poetry by employing different
strategies as required. As someone who has extensively written poetry about
science, I’d like to look at some approaches that can be useful in making such
ideas move beyond mere abstraction. For me, I always try to avoid using
footnotes for such poems and believe pieces should carry their own meaning and
be comprehensible to a non-specialist. These notions and strategies naturally
apply to ideas beyond science also.
Afternoon Sessions:
The afternoon sessions
will be devoted to work-shopping material from the group. Such sessions always
throw up unexpected questions and discussions around given poems and the only
requirement is that they are undertaken in a spirit of mutual respect and good
grace. We learn from each other.