The Knowing and Naming of Internal and External Landscape: A Creative Mapping of the Self

If geographic location can be found using maps, then can ‘locations’ within the self be found the same?
Can the page become the map, the map the self, the self the poems? Can the poet manifest as cartographer? Can a poem function as a map? Can a poet creatively map the self, both internally and externally? Can a cartographer’s vernacular of representative symbols and patterns be developed as a means of poetically representing the topography of the self?

In this workshop, Jane will encourage using creative mapping in order to navigate the self. Can external locations help us discover and articulate internal locations? Can place writing become a way of supporting self-knowledge, self-expression, and creative fluency? The amalgamation of internal and external locations can offer generative possibilities and a deeper understanding and articulation of place and its relationship to the self and to creative practice. The pieces that we write can become important places of existence for ourselves. If we experiment with emotional / poetic / creative mapping of internal / external locations, how would the results differ from traditional mapping? How would they inform our writing? How would they encourage emotional and poetic dialogues?

About Jane Burn

Jane Burn is an award-winning poet, artist, poet and hybrid writer. She is a working-class person with autism. Her work is widely published and anthologised. Her current collection, The Apothecary of Flight, is published by Nine Arches. She is the Michael Marks Awards Environmental Poet of the Year 2023/24 and lives off-grid in Northumberland for nine months of the year.

Zoom

These workshops will be conducted via Zoom. We have put together this simple 'How To' document to help you download Zoom, join a meeting, and navigate around the meeting features (such as adjusting video and audio, uploading files, and sharing screens).

You will receive a confirmation email from Ticket Tailor with your ticket and the Zoom invitation, containing the meeting link and Meeting ID & Password.

Someone from The Poetry Business team will be on hand prior to each workshop to offer additional help in getting connected.

There is usually a lot of interest in our workshops: in the interest of fairness, please limit yourself to one workshop ticket in every two week period.

Bursary Spaces

There are two bursary spaces available per workshop for writers from groups that are under-represented in contemporary poetry (for instance because of ethnic background) or who are experiencing financial hardship. If you would like to apply for one of these bursary places, please contact workshops@poetrybusiness.co.uk

Refunds

If you no longer wish to attend the workshop please let us know by emailing us. We ask for 3 working days' notice before the workshop starts in order to offer a full refund, and enable us to offer the place to someone else.

Though we will do all we can to help you get set up with the technology it is the participants' responsibility to ensure that their camera, microphone and other computer settings are configured correctly. Please contact us (workshops@poetrybusiness.co.uk) if you are concerned about getting set up for Zoom.