Fiona Benson's collections are Bright Travellers (Vintage, 2014), Vertigo & Ghost (Vintage, 2019), and Ephemeron (Vintage, 2022). Her work has received many awards, including the Forward Prize, the Seamus Heaney Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and all three of her collections were shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. She is currently working on a fourth collection Midden Witch, and a poetry script in collaboration with the Belgian choreographer Wim Vanderkeybus called Infamous Offspring. She lives in mid-Devon with her husband and their two daughters.
Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Poetry
Mon 12 August 2024 - Fri 16 August 2024
Tutors
/ Fiona Benson & Pascale Petit
Guest Reader
/ Romalyn Ante (Digital)
Course Fee
/
From
£ per person
Genre
/ Poetry
Language
/ English
Join renowned poets and tutors, Fiona Benson and Pascale Petit for an imaginative week of writing poetry full of beastly metamorphosis, mythical creatures, and creative alchemy as they encourage you to explore the power of the metaphor, and its ability to translate the personal into vivid new realms. You will have ample opportunity to write in the inspiring surroundings of Tŷ Newydd, the perfect idyll for wilding the imagination.
The week will include inspiring readings, group workshops and bespoke one-to-one tutorials, and visual stimuli and collage will be used to help your mind reach new imagery and imaginings. The tutors will also share their own experiences of creating a metaphoric world in their creative work. You’ll leave the week with an unleashed imagination and a transformed approach to your work.
Tutors
Fiona Benson
Pascale Petit
Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall. She is of French, Welsh, and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection of poetry, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe, 2017), won the inaugural Laurel Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Four previous collections were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Pascale was a co-founder of The Poetry School, and has been Chair of the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Laurel Prize. Her debut novel, My Hummingbird Father, is due from Salt in 2024 and her ninth collection, Beast, from Bloodaxe in 2025.
Guest Reader
Romalyn Ante (Digital)
Romalyn Ante FRSL is a British-Filipino poet, essayist, and editor. She grew up in the Philippines and migrated to her second home, Wolverhampton, in 2005. She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, a magazine for poets who write in English as a second or parallel language, and the founder of Tsaá with Roma, an online interview series with poets and other creatives. She was awarded the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and she currently sits as an editorial board member for Poetry London magazine.