Chaos, collage, & our disparate selves
A poetry workshop with Wanda Praamsma
Pre-registration required via Tickets Please
Regular rate $40.00 per registration
Almonte Readers & Writers is pleased to present the April series of Art of Writing workshops and courses exploring aspects of creative and technical skills development in literary arts, offered as part of the 2025 Lanark Lit Festival of Writing.
Overview
In this workshop, we will “begin anew” with our words. We will lay down our defences, our preconceptions, and prescribed or expected ways of writing, and allow and invite in the chaos and disarray. We will make room for all facets of our “selves” and examine the role of non-attachment in our writing lives. We will let our intuition override our rational minds so we can play and explore, using collage and other experimental methods to create new works.
What will we do in this workshop?
We will review several poems by Canadian and international poets, and we will set out to experiment on the page, and share and discuss our work. Participants are encouraged to bring their bits and pieces, words and lines scribbled on post-it notes, envelopes, or other scraps, and/or journal notes. If you can, bring a large sketchbook (or unlined notebook). Collage will be a focus, and we will create new pieces and tinker away on works you may have in progress.
Who is this workshop for?
All are welcome to attend this exploratory workshop. Those starting out, and those in the depths. We will focus on poetry but writers of all genres will likely enjoy the playfulness of this workshop.
About the instructor:
Wanda Praamsma is a poet and writer currently living in Kingston, Ontario. Her works include a thin line between (Book*hug, 2014) and aversions // nothing special (chapbook, above/ground, 2022). Another chapbook is forthcoming this year with Lake’s End Press. Her poems, non-fiction, and reviews have appeared in journals and newspapers in Canada and the U.S. Wanda is the founder and organizer of drift/line, a series of events featuring poetry and music in Kingston, and she works at Queen's University.
She grew up in Clayton, went to high school in Almonte, and still loves walking and driving the back roads throughout Lanark County.
The 2025 Lanark Lit Festival of Writing is presented by Almonte Readers & Writers thanks to the generous funding support of Lanark County, the Municipality of Mississippi Mills, the Perth & District Community Foundation, and the Elizabeth Kelly Library Foundation, with community partnership from the Mississippi Mills Public Library, the Perth & District Public Library, Mill Street Books, and the Almonte Writers Guild
