Over the last few years I have done a lot of online poetry workshops and I am super grateful for the technology that has allowed me to do so. However, there's something super special about being in a room of other people, all of whom are writing a poem at the same time. I don't know what the word for it is. I did coin the word craftyr a long time ago to refer to the experience of crafting together so perhaps writyr could describe the experience of writing in the company of other writers. Whatever you want to call it, it's magic – the act of writing in company.
On the weekend I travelled to the gorgeous little Victorian country town of Woodend where I attended the Poetry as Memoir writing workshop run by Amanda Collins and Dave Munro. I know Dave through my monthly poetry group and have published both him and Amanda in the pages of the Pocketry Almanack so it was super special to spend a morning with them in the Woodend library, talking and writing poetry. We did some great exercises and mind mapping of the senses and talked about joy, appropriation and consent.
To top it all off, we kept the poetry going by heading out to lucnh at a nearby cafe afterwards to eat and drink and talk some more. Even better, it was a crisp Autumn day and the drive there and back was delightful. I'm looking forward to more regional poetry experiences in the coming year. What about you? What are you looking forward to this year?