Writers Victoria

How can you create poems about your everyday experiences that resonate with strangers? In this course, you’ll be guided through readings and exercises that illuminate a relationship between autobiography and poetry. What’s so special about your favourite park? What do you reach for before bed? Is there a shirt you can’t wear without visiting a past version of you? Here, autobiography and memory become tools that construct a strong poetic persona. Lead by Madison Godfrey, the author of Dress Rehearsals, which is described as “a memoir made of poetry”. You Will Learn: How poems can rework lived experiences into stanzas and similes. How the personal can be political, by reading the work of poets who use their own everyday lives as the diving board into complex themes and ideas. The role of a poetic persona, as a device used in poetry, rather than a perfect replica of the author themselves. Entry points for drafting new poems. Strategies for editing, titling, and structuring poems – from someone who works simultaneously as an editor and an author.