Ekphrastic Attention
Wednesday, November 10, 3-5:30 pm (ET) | Thursday, November 11, 11:30 am - 12:45 pm (ET)
Details
This two-part workshop offers an introduction to poetry developed throughĚý±đ°ě±čłó°ů˛ą˛őľ±˛ő—considered in this context as a form of intermedial attention—and a chance to engage in ekphrastic writing through a direct encounter with a mural by Canadian artistĚýMarian Dale Scott. An introductory session will explore ekphrastic work from various periods by poets such as Homer, Keats, Auden, and Rich. Through guided writing exercises and facilitated conversation, participants will then have opportunity to consider how modes of ekphrastic attention might inform their own creative work.
Part 1, Introduction to Ekphrasis - November 10: 3:30-5:00ĚýAnticafĂ© Loft (Metro Place-des-Arts)
Part 2, Ekphrastic Attention - November 11: 11:15-12:45ĚýMcGill campus (meet atĚýStrathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, McGill)
Facilitator:ĚýSarah Wolfson, McGill Writing Centre
Wolfson is the author ofĚýA Common Name for Everything,Ěýwinner of the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Her poems have appeared in Canadian and American journals includingĚýThe Walrus,ĚýThe Fiddlehead,ĚýTriQuarterly, CV2,ĚýandĚýPRISMĚýinternational.ĚýHerĚýwork has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has received a notable mention inĚýBest Canadian Poetry.
Acts of Attention: In-person poetry reading with Klara du Plessis, Patrick O'Reilly, and Sonya Smith
Monday, December 13, 5-7 pm (ET)
Details
About the poets
Klara du Plessis is author of Ekke and Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press), works of long-form poetry, which have won or been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Raymond Souster Award, and the A.M. Klein Prize. Klara writes in English, Afrikaans, and translingually, and lives in TiohtiĂ :ke/Montreal.
Patrick O’ Reilly is a poet and critic originally from Renews, NL, currently based in Tiohtià :ke/Montreal. His chapbook, A Collapsible Newfoundland, appeared through Frog Hollow Press in 2020.
Sonya Smith is a Brighton-based poet whose poetry has been anthologized by Frogmore Press in Poetry South East Her debut collection, every robin i never quite saw, appeared in 2021.Ěý
Attending to Sound: Ekphrasis and Music with Earth World and Samara Garfinkle
Wednesday, March 30, 5-7 pm (ET)
Details
The theme for this year’s Poetry Matters workshops in creative writing isĚýekphrasisĚý-- broadly defined, descriptive writing in response to a work of art or other object. Although ekphrasis often suggests writing in response to visual art, it can apply to other media and fine art as well. This guided workshop with theĚýEarth World CollaborativeĚýand singer/poetĚýSamara GarfinkleĚýoffers opportunity to develop ekphrastic poetry responsive to music, both heard and unheard. Here, Earth World will introduce one of their recent projects featuring poetic responses to “imaginary music."
Ěýwas founded in 2018 by composers and organists Joel Peters and Adrian Foster. Its activities are centred on immersive story concerts, which integrate electronics, original compositions, projection, lighting, and special effects.
Ěýis a Canadian soprano, voice teacher, and poet. In 2022, she became the new host and co-coordinator ofĚýSpeakUp: The Montreal Interactive Poetry Exchange.
Venue:Ěý
How Objects Speak: A Poetry Workshop
Wednesday, May 18, 3:30-5:30 pm (ET)
Details
An in-person workshop on ekphrastic poetryĚýwithĚý, University of Regina, at the Birks Building, Senior Common Room, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ downtown campus (3520 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A7).
Drawing from her recent book,Ěý(VĂ©hicule Press, 2021), Purdham will share insights about her poetry and lead a workshop on poetry inspired by objects.
Medrie Purdham is Associate Professor of English at the University of Regina. Her work has appeared in publications such asĚýThe Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review,ĚýandĚýThe New Quarterly. Research interests include prosody, twentieth-century drama, and modern and postmodern Canadian literature. She is currently at work on another collection, provisionally entitledĚýMiniatures.
Windows on the Future
Friday, April 22, 11 am - 1 pm (ET)
Details
We are delighted to invite you for “Windows on the Future,” an in-person workshop on ekphrastic poetry featuring a sculpture on McGill’s campus, Marcel Barbeau’s Fenêtre sur l’avenir (1992), which many of us pass every day. This year’s theme for Poetry Matters’ workshops in creative writing is ekphrasis — broadly defined, descriptive writing in response to a work of art or other object. This guided workshop with poet Sarah Wolfson and curator Gwendolyn Owens provides opportunity to develop ekphrastic poetry in response to sculpture.
Venue:ĚýJames Terrace, McGill campus
About the facilitators
Gwendolyn OwensĚýis Director of McGill’s Visual Arts Collection and former Assistant Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Sarah WolfsonĚýis author ofĚýA Common Name for Everything, which won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers’ Federation. She teaches at the McGill Writing Centre.
Articulating the Body: Ekphrasis in the Maude Abbott Medical Museum
Thursday, March 10, 5-7 pm (ET)
Details
This workshop, led by poet and physician Dr. Shane Neilson, will guide participants through ekphrastic writing exercises that engage objects housed in the Maude Abbott’s unique collection of medical specimens.
The Museum is home to exciting ekphrastic possibilities in their collection, which speaks to us across time, anatomy, and sometimes even species. We’re grateful to offer this workshop in collaboration with Professor of Pathology and Director of the museum. Registration is required and space limited.
About the Facilitator
Shane Neilson is a poet, physician, literary critic, and scholar of Canadian literatures. His work includes poetry collections such as Complete Physical and Exterminate My Heart, as well as essays on his experience as a physician, Call Me Doctor and Gunmetal Blue. Awards for his poetry include Arc Poetry Magazine’s Poet of the Year, the Hamilton Literary Award; The Walrus Poetry Prize; and the shortlist for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and the Trillium Poetry Prize. Shane is a SSHRC Postdoctoral fellow from the Department of English, University of Ottawa. He is currently an assistant professor of Family Medicine at McMaster University, and he continues to practice medicine in Guelph, Ontario.
A New English Grammar, and Other Poems: Poetry Reading with Spector Lecturer, Jeff Dolven
Thursday, January 20, 5:30 pm (ET)
Details
Dr. Jeff Dolven is the author of three books of criticism, Scenes of Instruction, Senses of Style, and the admittedly hasty Take Care, as well as essays on a variety of subjects, from Renaissance metrics to player pianos. His poems have appeared in magazines and journals in the US and the UK and in a volume, Speculative Music. He is also an editor-at-large at Cabinet magazine and was the founding director of Princeton’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM).
He read from his collection-in-progress, "A New English Grammar," along with his published works. The audience, along with Dolven, contemplated questions of the politics of attention and how it is crafted through the poetic medium.