Are you an aspiring or developing poet looking to come together with other poets to hone your craft, kick start older poems, or steer your poetry into new areas? Poet and author Heather Taylor-Johnson will introduce new and old concepts in this four month intensive.

In a practice-based environment, participants will bounce around a variety of poetry-making ideas as well as explore the inner-workings of some contemporary and classic poems. Under the guidance of poet and author, Heather Taylor-Johnson, you will be given poetic challenges via discussion, readings, and exercises. You will experiment with ways of looking at the line and the page afresh, at how image-making and your poetry language can be recharged, at how old forms can be made new again or new forms developed, how the play of constraint, chance and improvisation can open up new horizons, and, along the way, you will work with editing strategies to help you enhance your draft poems.

Heather will also explore issues in contemporary poetry, and discuss publishing opportunities. This is a space to progress your current work, test your creative and critical thinking, and get familiar with innovative poets and ideas. Participants will receive a package of readings and some light feedback during some meetings.

Best suited to participants who have a basic knowledge of the fundamental poetic forms, and who have or are developing a poetry practice, but above all, a driving passion for poetry.

**Book before February 29 to get a free pass to the masterclass Writing Place in Poetry with Sara M Saleh**

The 2024 program includes: 

• Eight fortnightly 1.5 hour group meetings (dates are below. Please note, there is a three-week break part-way through)
• Access to a wide selection of workshops with three credits to use across Writers SA's online and in-person events. (T&Cs apply)
• Receive detailed feedback from Heather on five poems over the course of the program
• One Work Space writing intensive day
• Access to a private online space to share work and ideas with your peers.

Feedback from past participants:

‘Poetry Studio was a dynamic course full of challenging projects, great workshop exercises to get the creative juices going and fabulous feedback to rework your poems. I came away with more knowledge about other poets, styles and methods to read and make poetry that satisfied my hungry creativity.’ - Shaine

'An engaging and immersive experience. The tutorials involved plenty of practical experiments with ample opportunities to discuss and dissect. The atmosphere in the forums was encouraging and helpful. There was good advice and assistance and exposure to new techniques for generating and revising poems.' - Joel
 

Meeting dates: Tuesdays 6.00pm - 7.30pm, April 30, May 14 & 28, June 11 & 25, July 9 (**three week break**), August 6 & 20.

Members $690* / Non-members $990

This program will be delivered online via Zoom. Instructions will be emailed to you, please be sure to check your spam folder.

*Payment plans are available to members for this program with an affordable deposit and fortnightly repayments. A $10 admin fee is charged. Please email [email protected] to discuss options.

—Not yet a Writers SA member? Join here for as little as $60!

—Writers SA members must be logged in to receive the member discount. If you are a member of another state based writers centre, please contact [email protected] at least five working days before the program commencement date to get a code for the member price. Our staff don’t work full time and we don’t want you to miss out!

—If you are a member of another state based writers centre, a member of SCBWI SA or Editors SA, please contact [email protected] at least five working days before the program commencement date to get a code for the member price.

Program Terms and Conditions

- The three workshops credits refer to both digital and in-person sessions and include: one 1.5-hour workshop and two three-hour workshops. The workshops may be selected of your choice or by recommendation from Writers SA. You must use these credits in 2024. Outstanding credits will not be held over. These cannot be exchanged for any other service or refunded. There will be a maximum of two credit-holders at each event until a minimum number of paid participants is reached and will be on a first-come-first-served basis after emailing [email protected] to lodge your request. If the workshop is at capacity for credit-holders, you can opt to pay for the workshop or join a wait-list until the event reaches the minimum number of paid participants.

-Participation in this series does not guarantee publication.

About Heather Taylor-Johnson

Heather Taylor-Johnson is a multi-form writer living and working on Kaurna land near Port Adelaide. Her most recent poetry books are the verse novel Rhymes with Hyenas and the collection Alternative Hollywood Ending. An anthology she edited, Shaping the Fractured Self: Poetry of Chronic Illness and Pain, was the winner of the Mascara Avant Garde Award and is read in disability circles around the world. Her second novel, Jean Harley was Here, was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Fiction and optioned for a 7-part TV series. In 2022 she won Island’s Nonfiction Prize and was shortlisted for ABR’s Calibre Prize and the Red Room Poetry Fellowship. She’s an arts critic and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide, where she also earned a PhD in Creative Writing.