A west coast poet will explore the “music” of poetry in a Port Alberni workshop at the end of this month.
The Federation of British Columbia Writers will host a poetry writing workshop with Wendy Donawa, with a meet-and-greet to follow at Char’s Landing on Thursday, May 31, from 3-5 p.m. The cost is $20 (or $10 for members of the Federation of BC Writers.)
Wendy will also be the featured reader at Words on Fire that evening, and workshop participants may choose to attend and participate in the open mic ($5 donation.)
The workshop will explore the music and structure of poetry, and how thought and emotion are conveyed through the “music” of sound effects such as slant rhyme and half rhyme. It will be suitable for both new and experienced poets.
After three decades in Barbados as college instructor and museum curator, Wendy Donawa has retired to her birthplace on the salty West Coast, where she enjoys Victoria’s lively poetry community. She is a contributing editor with Arc Poetry Magazine, and has published three chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in various Canadian anthologies and poetry magazines, including Prairie Fire, Room, Freefall, Arc Poetry Magazine and Literary Review of Canada. She was a finalist in The Malahat Review’s 2013 Open Season Competition, and in the 2015 Cedric Awards, and in 2017 was selected for Vancouver’s 2017 Poetry in Transit project.
Elegaic and incisive, her poems unpack the light and dark of daily life in the larger context of humanity’s griefs and quandaries. Thin Air of the Knowable, published last year by Brick Books, is her début poetry collection. It has been longlisted for the 2018 Raymond Souster award and recently made the short list of the Gerald Lampert award. She is a member of the Federation of BC Writers.
“We are thrilled to have Wendy come to Alberni for these events. She’s a wonderful poet and gives great workshops,” said Jackie Carmichael, a Port Alberni resident who is vice president of the Federation of British Columbia Writers.
“The FBCW has recently hosted poetry workshops at Char’s Landing with poets Cynthia Sharp and Derek Hanebury, and we are looking forward to more on the horizon. Nurturing new, emerging and established writers around the province is the FBCW’s top priority.”
READ: Vancouver poet to hold workshop in Port Alberni
Anyone with an interest in writing is welcome to join the Federation of British Columbia Writers, which has chapters in Alberni, Tofino/Ucluelet and around BC.
To learn more about the FBCW, visit bcwriters.ca. To register for the upcoming workshop, email carmichael.jacqueline@gmail.com or call 250-726-6072.