Writing & Environmental Witness
a retreat led by jan zwicky
April 23 – 28, 2017
Honeymoon Bay Lodge and Retreat Centre
Writing & Environmental Witness is a multi-genre intensive designed to support writers working on the front lines of environmental witness. Witness is exemplified in actions like those of Vedran Smailovic, “the cellist of Sarajevo,” who played elegies in the ruined buildings of his city during the siege in the early ’90s. It is an attempt to give accurate voice to the moral, emotional and aesthetic dimensions of a catastrophe, as well as to the facts; and thus it speaks human truth to faceless technocratic power. Environmental witness can take almost any form in writing, from haiku to five-volume histories; its emotional tone can range from grief to celebration, from terror to serenity, from rage to joy. Its essence is a serious engagement with the natural world which unfolds within an acknowledgment – oblique or direct – of damage to or lack or care for that world. Each participant will present work-in–progress and consult one-on-one with the presenter to develop a reading list relevant to their project.
The workshop begins Sunday afternoon April 23 and concludes Friday morning April 28.
Because enrolment is limited the application process involves submitting a writing sample of your environmental writing for review and acceptance. Participants will be notified on February 20, 2017 of their acceptance. To receive the full prospectus and workshop outline please EMAIL Planet Earth Poetry and put Writing Intensive in the subject line.
Cost including accommodation and meals (Sunday dinner to Friday breakfast):
Single room/person $1547.35
Shared room/person $1228.25
BOOK-MAKING FOR POETS!
A Workshop with Terry Ann Carter
sunday, december 4, 2016
Poet and paper artist
President of Haiku Canada
Member of Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild
A book-making workshop for poets with Terry Ann Carter! Bring along your favourite poems, your favourite poetic epigrams, even bios of favourite poets, and find a home for them, learning both small and large book-making techniques, some origami folds, plus binding skills. Participants will make two writing notebooks (one large and one tiny), a contemporary palm leaf book, an accordion fold with pockets, a tag book, and a one signature construct called “poet’s words” – six books in total.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 2016 TIME: 1:00-4:00
LOCATION: A comfortable home on the scenic Gorge. Address and directions supplied upon registration.
REGISTRATION: Register early; places go fast! Maximum 10 participants. Please use subject line PEP December workshop to register at barbarapelman@gmail.com
Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to make time for parking, intros, settling in.
Light refreshments provided. Please bring your own mug.
WHAT TO BRING: Terry Ann will supply papers for all books, book ephemera, and pages of weatherbeaten old texts.
Participants should bring: scissors, glue, ruler, pencil, (paint box if you have one) black and white photos (for a “grey scale” design), pages of poetry text (either computer or from an old vintage book), an old cereal box (good for covers). You will also make a small accordion fold book with eight “pockets”; bring eight favourite words for this book.
FEE: $50.00: A cheque made out to Planet Earth Poetry will hold your place.
CANCELLATION POLICY: No refunds after November 28. Places may be transferred to someone else as long as Registration is notified by December 1.
