Learn the poetics of imagery from the best! One of Australia’s best loved poets and teachers, Judith Beveridge, will explore the work of two of her favourite poets to help inspire your own writing. The poet Kevin Hart described fellow Australian Robert Gray’s poetry as ‘a hymn to the optic nerve’. American poet Elizabeth Bishop is known for the extraordinary way she renders the physical world with precision and detail. She is mentioned most often when poets are asked which poet's writing has taught them the most. Bishop and Gray are perhaps two of the best image-makers in the English language.

We will look at the ways in which these poets draw out details and scenes with immense depth and perspective, at their persuasive and startling connections and at their moral and philosophical enquiry. Learning to work with images involves training the eye, the ear, touch, taste, and scent to apprehend and define particulars. These two poets have a great deal to teach us about this process, about how to perceive intensely and originally. We will also do an image-based writing exercise.

This is the second part of a workshop run in March 2024. But you don’t need to have attended part one – it’s a self contained workshop.

Judith Beveridge lives in Sydney, Australia and is one of Australia most celebrated poets and teachers. She has published seven volumes of poetry all of which have won or been short-listed for major prizes. Her latest volume, Sun Music: New and Selected Poems (Giramondo, 2018), won the Prime Minister’s Poetry Prize in 2019. She has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies including Contemporary Australian Poetry, (Puncher & Wattmann 2016). She was poetry editor for the literary magazine Meanjin from 2005-2016. Her work has been studied in schools and universities and translated into many languages. She taught poetry writing at post-graduate level for many years at the University of Sydney and continues to work in the community. She is a recipient of the Philip Hodgins Memoria Medal and the Christopher Brennan Award for excellence in literature.

1.5 hours long

Start time: 9am UK time // 5pm Perth Australia // 7.30pm Adelaide // 7pm Brisbane // 8pm Sydney, AEST // 6.30pm Darwin // 10pm NZ

Advertised times on this site are in London, UK Timezone, but when you add the event to your calendar it should be correct for your local time zone.

You can check your timezone against London UK time here: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Zoom link and materials will be sent by email at least 2 days prior. If you don’t receive it get in touch with me.

More events here https://www.cathdrake.com