2021-2022 Events

This two-part workshop offers an introduction to poetry developed through ekphrasis—considered in this context as a form of intermedial attention—and a chance to engage in ekphrastic writing through a direct encounter with a mural by Canadian artist Marian Dale Scott. An introductory session will explore ekphrastic work from various periods by poets such as Homer, Keats, Auden, and Rich. Through guided writing exercises and facilitated conversation, participants will then have opportunity to consider how modes of ekphrastic attention might inform their own creative work.

Part 1, Introduction to Ekphrasis - November 10: 3:30-5:00 Anticafé Loft (Metro Place-des-Arts)
Part 2, Ekphrastic Attention - November 11: 11:15-12:45 McGill campus (meet at Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, McGill)

Facilitator: Sarah Wolfson, McGill Writing Centre

Wolfson is the author of A Common Name for Everything, winner of the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Her poems have appeared in Canadian and American journals including The Walrus, The Fiddlehead, TriQuarterly, CV2, and PRISM international. Her work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has received a notable mention in Best Canadian Poetry.

About the poets

Klara du Plessis is author of Ekke and Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press), works of long-form poetry, which have won or been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Raymond Souster Award, and the A.M. Klein Prize. Klara writes in English, Afrikaans, and translingually, and lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal.

Patrick O’ Reilly is a poet and critic originally from Renews, NL, currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. His chapbook, A Collapsible Newfoundland, appeared through Frog Hollow Press in 2020.

Sonya Smith is a Brighton-based poet whose poetry has been anthologized by Frogmore Press in Poetry South East Her debut collection, every robin i never quite saw, appeared in 2021. 

The theme for this year’s Poetry Matters workshops in creative writing is ekphrasis -- broadly defined, descriptive writing in response to a work of art or other object. Although ekphrasis often suggests writing in response to visual art, it can apply to other media and fine art as well. This guided workshop with the Earth World Collaborative and singer/poet Samara Garfinkle offers opportunity to develop ekphrastic poetry responsive to music, both heard and unheard. Here, Earth World will introduce one of their recent projects featuring poetic responses to “imaginary music."

The Earth World Collaborative was founded in 2018 by composers and organists Joel Peters and Adrian Foster. Its activities are centred on immersive story concerts, which integrate electronics, original compositions, projection, lighting, and special effects.

Samara Garfinkle is a Canadian soprano, voice teacher, and poet. In 2022, she became the new host and co-coordinator of SpeakUp: The Montreal Interactive Poetry Exchange.

Venue: KIN Experience, 397A Saint-Catherine St W, Montreal, Quebec H3B 1A4

An in-person workshop on ekphrastic poetry with poet Medrie Purdham, University of Regina, at the Birks Building, Senior Common Room, McGill University downtown campus (3520 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A7).

Drawing from her recent book, Little Housewolf (Véhicule Press, 2021), Purdham will share insights about her poetry and lead a workshop on poetry inspired by objects.

Medrie Purdham is Associate Professor of English at the University of Regina. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, and The New Quarterly. Research interests include prosody, twentieth-century drama, and modern and postmodern Canadian literature. She is currently at work on another collection, provisionally entitled Miniatures.

We are delighted to invite you for “Windows on the Future,” an in-person workshop on ekphrastic poetry featuring a sculpture on McGill’s campus, Marcel Barbeau’s Fenêtre sur l’avenir (1992), which many of us pass every day. This year’s theme for Poetry Matters’ workshops in creative writing is ekphrasis — broadly defined, descriptive writing in response to a work of art or other object. This guided workshop with poet Sarah Wolfson and curator Gwendolyn Owens provides opportunity to develop ekphrastic poetry in response to sculpture.

Venue: James Terrace, McGill campus

About the facilitators

Gwendolyn Owens is Director of McGill’s Visual Arts Collection and former Assistant Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Sarah Wolfson is author of A Common Name for Everything, which won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers’ Federation. She teaches at the McGill Writing Centre.

Dr. Jeff Dolven is the author of three books of criticism, Scenes of Instruction, Senses of Style, and the admittedly hasty Take Care, as well as essays on a variety of subjects, from Renaissance metrics to player pianos. His poems have appeared in magazines and journals in the US and the UK and in a volume, Speculative Music. He is also an editor-at-large at Cabinet magazine and was the founding director of Princeton’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM).

He read from his collection-in-progress, "A New English Grammar," along with his published works. The audience, along with Dolven, contemplated questions of the politics of attention and how it is crafted through the poetic medium.