What is the Poetic Writing Workshop?

 

The Poetic Writing Workshop is an open workshop for students interested in writing poetry in English. The workshop has been founded by Torsten Caeners in 2008 and has been meeting regularly ever since. The participation in the workshop is entirely voluntary. In this sense it is an extracurricular activity and Credit Points or marks do not play a role in the workshop. In its two years, the workshop has produced on small volume of poetry that was marketed within the department. A new volume is currently in the making…

 

What does the Poetic Writing Workshop do?

 

The members of the Poetic Writing Workshop meet more or less regularly during the semester and also in the semester break for sessions of about 90 minutes. In these sessions, the members share the poetry they have written since the last meeting and these texts are discussed openly by the group. This means that constructive criticism is offered, questions of form, word choice, rhythm and metre are addressed and discussed both with regard to specific poems and in general. Often, it is decided that poems for the coming session should deal with a certain topic, or be written in a certain fixed form. Also, exercises and tasks regarding image development and formal aspects are part of the workshop. Since the workshop is a collaborative enterprise, wishes from individual members are taken into account whenever possible and the atmosphere is one of relaxed conversation with coffee, tea and cookies.

 

What do I have to do to join?

 

If you wish to join/or simply try out a session to see if it is for you, simply write an email to Torsten Caeners (torsten.caeners[at]uni-due.de) or Ana Elisa Gomez Laris (ana.gomez-laris@uni-due.de) and you will be added to the workshop’s mailing list and thus be informed about the date of the next meeting. The only things you need to bring is a love for poetry and an interest in writing it. Additionally, you should have a decent command of the English language, of course, as this is the basic requirement to start working. We are currently a cozy group of six members, we don’t bite and will welcome anyone who’s interested to contribute.

 

Trip to St Andrews

In March 2010 the members of the Poetic Writing Workshop undertook an excursion to St Andrews, Scotland, to visit the annual Stanza Poetry Festival. The week-long trip included attendance of various of the Stanza events, among other things the Stanza lecture on Poetry and Myth, a poetry breakfast with discussions on how poets develop, a poetry walk through the historic streets of St Andrews, the beach and the ruins of the great cathedral, and, as the highlight, an reading by Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney and, on the following day, a session of Heaney discussing his life and work with fellow poet Dennis O'Driscoll. During the book signings that followed these events, the members of the Poetry Writing Workshop all got signatures of Heaney and O'Driscoll. In addition to all this, fringe events such as a visit to Scotland's capital Edinburgh, numerous and talkative visits to the local pub and, last but not least, several writing exercises in the inspiring atmosphere of St Andrews made this trip a truly poetic experience.

Publications

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Our latest publication "Verse and Tile" was released in June 2017 and can be purchased here.

 

Contents

Lena Mattheis: Forth; Three Summer Poems; Toss the dice; Two Musical Poems; Of my first disobedience (When I stopped being God); Three Dirty Poems

Sylvia Nienhaus: Memories; Sticky Thoughts; Drowning; The Sea; City Life; Surrender; Writer´s Block; Spring; Death; Beach Life; About Time; Entrapment

Sandra Herold: Breach; Autumn’s Glow; A Many-Headed Beast; Of Home; A Bright Winter’s Morn’; Drums of War; Dragon

Jascha Kattmann: Horsecockery; Hayrolling; Requiem (or: A Little on the Nose); Of Lobsters and Goldfish; Inconceivable Discovery; Chimera Heat; All Saints Lost; Mistress Muse; The Trophy

Marian Schmidt: Frater ave atque vale!; Atreides, Atreides!; ´Tis But The Tale of the Season; Morpheus was watching; Laconian Eulogy; The Eighth Tile of Gilgamesh (Fragment); Insignificance; As we speak we turn to stone

Lioba Schreyer: Birds of Passage; War-torn Letters; Fall; My thermo-cup doesn’t keep its promise; Letters; There Are Better Stories Than His; Love Ruins; Recollecting A Decade

Julia Linne: Sweet Dreams, Love; To the Continent; clone; Growing Wings; Old Town

Robin Frischkorn: Rising Sun; Between Realities; To Homer; Horkenstein; Emperors Fall; The Carving on her Gravestone

Frida Heitland: St. George's Hall, Liverpool; March; Stay; A Many-Headed Beast; Ways We Keep Warm; New Tracks for Old Feet; A Rider Detached; 26 Lego Blocks; How to Train your Daemon; Dusty Coats and Amber-Makers

Daniela Langolf: Window Frame; Reading to a Cat; Reading to a Boy (or The Collector of E’s); A Cautionary Tale; Mother; Sibling Rivalry; Gulls; An Anniversary; What I Think; To Dexter, my CGM

Torsten Caeners: A Quartet of Voices; Unwoken; The White Goddess; The Return