Workshop with Robyn Rowland

When: Saturday September 11th 2010, 10am – 4pm (with a break for lunch)

What: This structured workshop is appropriate for, and has been successfully conducted with, established and early writers; poets and prose writers.

Part 1. Sweet Words: Valuing the Particular.

It is often difficult to find a way into the poem or prose we want to write and to bring to it a sense of the immediate. Beginning in the particular, we can watch an organic growth occur, gaining nurture from colour, scent, sound, taste and touch. In these particulars lie the story, the connection ready to unfold in your writing. This session will help you to uncover it, to shape it, with the aim of gaining immediacy in your work.

Part 2. River and ocean; tear and breath. Great and small; water in flood and famine.

From the smallest droplet to the greatest ocean, water is the building block of life. Inside us - bodies made primarily of water - tears release emotion, water ensures survival. As an image, it flows through the great poetry of Buddhism, the Bible and the poetry of those who connect inner life with nature. This workshop takes the elemental nature of water – its practical and mythical significance – and encourages its various representations in our work.

Each participant is given notes to keep relating to the topic for each part of the workshop, as well as copies of Robyn’s or other poems which exemplify themes. Each part of the workshop involves a talk, a guided meditative moment encouraging participants to attend to the nature of their piece of writing, followed by writing towards the topic. At the end of each part, Robyn will give feedback for each participant in terms of the aim of the workshop.

Cost: 35 euros, (30 concession).

Where: Adare Library, Limerick

Limited numbers. Bookings essential please by Sept 6th, as Robyn is traveling to Limerick do the workshop. Contact Dominic @ limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com

Who: Dr Robyn Rowland AO has published ten books. Her work has been awarded a number of prizes. Silence & its tongues (2006) was shortlisted for the 2007 ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Seasons of doubt & burning: New & Selected Poems is just published. Third generation Irish-Australian, Robyn has been reading and teaching in Ireland for 28 years, where she lives part-time in Connemara.

Robyn, an Honorary Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, was Deputy Chair of the Board, Australian Poetry Centre (2007-2008), and Professor of Social Inquiry and Women’s Studies at Deakin University, retiring in 1996 with breast cancer and burnout. She was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her contribution to higher education and women's health in 1996.

www.robynrowland.com bysea@nbigpond.com