Poetry of the Personal & Political with Tara Bergin 28/7/25

'I would like to write as if I had remained silent' – János Pilinszky

In this workshop Tara will look at the ways in which some poets manage to combine two elements: a world event that is known and perceived by many; and a personal moment that is intimate and often shaded by privacy. How can these two elements work together in a poem? How much should each contribute? How might they illuminate or strengthen each other? We'll explore how the use of the personal pronoun – whether singular, plural, or absent – can become a powerful turning point in poems of life and war, looking at the formal and linguistic choices made by poets including Bertolt Brecht, Paul Muldoon, Les Murray and Don Mee Choi. During this workshop we will try drafting our own poems inspired by events both personal and collective, experimenting with viewpoint and arrangement to discover routes to making poems that seek a dynamic engagement with the public and private experiences of our times.

Tara Bergin is an Irish poet, born in Dublin. She has published three collections of poetry with Carcanet Press: This is Yarrow, winner of the Seamus Heaney Prize for Poetry; The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and Forward Prizes; and most recently Savage Tales, listed as one of the Irish Times ‘best new poetry books of 2022’ and shortlisted for the Pigott Prize for Poetry 2023. Reviewing the latter collection for The Irish Times, Stephen Sexton wrote: ‘Tara Bergin’s Savage Tales underlines her position as one of our most exciting poets. [...] generous and humane and utterly compelling.’ Tara now lives in the North of England and teaches in the Creative Writing Programme at Newcastle University.

Tara says: Sometimes students worry about being ‘original’ because this is a word often used to denote ‘good’. But the originality comes in the treatment of your subject matter, not in the subject matter itself. What’s original is the voice you use to express these things. That’s one of the things you're looking for as a writer: the voice that will reach inside your head, strike a match and start a fire.

2.5 hours long

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

Cost £30 GBP (with cost effective exchange via STRIPE)

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