The following webinar is open to everyone, programmed by WGA regional Rep Dorothy Bentley.
Writing Place, Writing Self, Writing History: The Documentary Poem with Dr. Ryan Cox
Saturday, May 9, 2020
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Free for WGA members, $20 for non-members
Register HERE
Registration will close Friday, May 8, 4:30 pm MST
The Documentary Poem, as Dorothy Livesay once noted, is a particularly Canadian genre. It represents an intersection of place and history with poet’s self. In this workshop we will explore techniques for writing poems in the documentary mode, and how to work with, through, and against historical documents in order to create poetry.
Topics covered:
- The Documentary Poem: An Introduction
- Approach 1: Dorothy Livesay’s Dialectic (Model text: “Day and Night” by Dorothy Livesay)
- Approach 2: Writing over and through with Robert Kroetsch (Model Text: “The Ledger” by Robert Kroetsch)
- Approach 3: Disrupting the Document with Play (Model Texts: The Place of Scraps and Un/Inhabited by Jordan Abel)
These will be supplemented by further examples of the concepts applied
Ryan J. Cox teaches English, Film and Cultural Studies at Keyano College in Fort McMurray. His poetry has appeared in The Windsor Review, Carousel, and Arc Poetry Magazine. He also regularly contributes book reviews to Prairie Fire, and his critical writing has appeared in English Studies in Canada and Canadian Literature.