A poem is a river, a map, a dream of the world: a site-specific summer writing workshop
July 27 & 28
10-3:30 pm
Kagawong, Manitoulin Island
$250 (sliding scale available for IBPOC writers)
Early bird registration by May 31: $215.00
Limit: 15 spots, register early!
In this ambulatory workshop, we’ll walk together along the Kagawong River. We’ll wade into the porosity of water and language. We’ll unfold historical maps and make them flutter. We’ll write to help us listen, and listen as multi-directional bodies of water. We’ll write words that might flow into or between poetry and prose, the visual and the vocal. We’ll write work that defies categories. We’ll create work that flows from our time on the river, even if we send it downstream and no human ear floats its words. This experimental, and exploratory workshop invites people with or without writing experience for a fun, collegial and restorative weekend.
Bio: Conversations with the Kagawong River, a book of hybrid poetry is forthcoming with Talon Books. Images from this project – visual poems, video poems and text-based work – have been published by Gap Riot and Blasted Tree Presses. These and other poems have appeared in a number of literary magazines across Canada. In addition to a limited edition, handbound chapbook, Footnotes, published by JackPine Press, she’s written/edited three non-fiction books about land-based creative community engagement and research. She has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, and shortlisted for Arc Magazine Poem of the Year. She has a Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College and has attended writing residencies with the Banff Centre for the Arts, Sage Hill, and the Al Purdy A-Frame. As the founding AD/ED of 4elements Living Arts she curated and spearheaded dozens of environmental arts projects, including River School (the Art + Science of Rivers), Elemental Festival and The Connections Trail (which won an Ontario Lieutenant Governor Award for Cultural Landscape Heritage Preservation). She has facilitated countless site-specific and outdoor experiences for children, students and community members of all ages.