Online Workshop: 'The many dialects of silence' with Philip Gross
Wed 12 Feb 2025 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM GMT
Online, Zoom
Description
The many dialects of silence: a writing workshop with Philip Gross
Oppressive silence, to be broken? An expectant hush? A state of deep peace, or of heightened listening? Building on the understanding that poetry itself is made of words and silences, join us to explore the nuances of silence as you hear it. There’ll be examples of poems setting out to map this terrain, and some leading questions to prompt tentative work-in-progress we can share in the workshop, with new directions to explore beyond.
About Philip Gross
Philip Gross was born in Cornwall and, for the last 20 years, in South Wales. The principle of water, in particular Môr Hafren, the Severn estuary, has formed a backdrop to his work since The Water Table won the TS Eliot Prize in 2009, though The Shores of Vaikus (Bloodaxe, 2024) returns to Estonia, birthplace of his father, a wartime refugee. As well as twenty-odd collections of poetry, for adults and young people, he has written novels for young people, opera libretti and radio plays. One of the writer-educators who helped establish creative writing in UK universities, he not so much retired as ‘released himself back into the wild’ in 2017. Collaboration, especially across the different arts, is one of the springboards for his writing, and he brings his Quaker understanding of the positive depths of silence to the dance of words and silence that we know as poetry.
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.