Poems Imagining Art: Exploring Notional Ekphrasis with Paul Hetherington 1/10/26

Fabulous Australian poetry teacher and award-winning ekphrastic poet, Paul Hetherington, delves into the relationship between imaginative artworks and poetry, emphasising the importance of what John Hollander calls notional ekphrasis. This is poetry describing artwork that “doesn’t exist” except in “poetry’s own fiction.”

Works of notional ekphrasis are central to the ekphrastic tradition—famous examples include John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”, along with Homer’s extended passage on Achilles’ shield in the Iliad.

But why do poets so often refer to purely imaginary works of art, and what are they trying to achieve when they do? Valentine Cunningham states that ekphrasis “point[s] at an allegedly touchable, fingerable, thisness”, but how is this possible when many ekphrases point at works that never existed physically?

There will be opportunities to write your own poems of notional ekphrasis. A list of journals and other avenues for the publication of ekphrastic poetry will also be provided. 

Paul is currently co-editing Ekphrastic Poetry: An Introduction to Poetry about the Arts for Princeton University Press, so it should be a rich discussion and session!

Paul Hetherington is a distinguished scholar and poet, and Emeritus Professor of Writing at the University of Canberra, Australia. He has published 19 full-length poetry and prose poetry collections, most recently Collected Poems 1990–2022 (Pierian Springs Press, 2026) and Sleeplessness (PSP, 2023). He has won or been nominated for more than 50 national and international awards and competitions, including winning the inaugural 2024 The Marion Halligan Award and the 2021 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize. He is joint founding editor of the international online journal Axon: Creative Explorations. With Distinguished Professor Cassandra Atherton, he co-authored the scholarly monograph, Prose Poetry: An Introduction (Princeton UP, 2020) and co-edited the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (Melbourne UP, 2020). They are writing Ekphrastic Poetry: An Introduction to Poetry about the Arts for Princeton University Press.

2.5 hours long

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

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

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

Waiting list - If live workshops places have sold out, please contact me directly here: https://www.tickettailor.com/promoter/help/link/cathdrakestheverandah if you'd like to be included on a waiting list for the live workshops. Don't forget to include the name of the workshop or use the dropdown list.

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This event will be recorded. Our workshops are intended as live and interactive. However, there are a small number of tickets for those keen to come, but who cannot make the date of this workshop that are 'recording only' tickets to be purchased in advance ONLY for those who can't make the date. If you buy a live ticket and don't turn up on the day, you can't access the recording – sorry, it's not a fall back. You need to buy a live OR recorded ticket. This is because we primarily want poets to come and participate in live workshops. 'Recording only' tickets allow access to listen to a recording of the workshop during the 2 weeks following the workshop. (Note that we may share the recording at a future time to new participants.)