I’m keen to get folks writing place-based poems! Although the February 21 online workshop that I’m doing with Heritage Vancouver Society is full (20 person waitlist), there are two more workshops coming up this March.
Pandora’s Writing Collective has partnered with me to organize a live, in-person workshop for 20 participants on Saturday afternoon, March 5, entitled Buried History: A Poetry Workshop at Mountain View Cemetery. We’ll convene at Celebration Hall at 2:30, and then go on a 20-30 minute walking tour on site led by Ryan Macleod. Then we’ll gather again at the hall to generate some writing based on a few prompts. To register, please email Pandora’s Writing Collective’s Executive Director, Bonnie Nish at blnish_pandoras@yahoo.ca.
Two weeks later, on Saturday, March 19, 2-3:30 PM, I’ll be doing a free online workshop, Writing the City: Crafting Poems about Place, with the Vancouver Public Library. You can register for one of the 50 spots here. I’ll go over some key components of poetry, discuss a few site-based poems, and then offer some writing prompts for participants to try out. There will be a chance for participants to share a short excerpt of what is drafted with one or two other participants in break-out rooms, before the session concludes with some pointers on revision.
I’ll be organizing a workshop this spring on the important subject of revision. Wonderful American poet, Mary Oliver wrote about undertaking forty-plus revisions on any one of her poems. I have to agree about the necessary process of revision. It takes time and attention to hone a poem. Everything counts–every line-break, every word, every piece of punctuation.
For updates on events and workshops, please check out the City Poems Contest Facebook page.
Fiona Tinwei Lam 