The Archive of the Mundane: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

Hemingway said the best short story he’d ever read had been a newspaper advert: “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn”. In this workshop we will mine the ephemera that surround our busy lives – the archive of the mundane – to create poems which reveal something poignant, electrifying or momentous out of the ordinary. We will peek behind diary entries, shopping lists, passenger lists, recipes and advertisements, looking at how other poets have approached these sources, and create poems which draw out the stories they contain. A fun workshop aimed at thinking creatively about hidden layers: be prepared never to look at lists and instruction manuals the same way again.

About Shash Trevett

Shash Trevett is a poet and a translator of Tamil poetry into English. Her poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies, she has read variously across the U.K and internationally and is a winner of a Northern Writers’ Award. Her pamphlet From a Borrowed Land was published in May 2021 and The Naming of Names, her first full collection, in September 2024, both by The Poetry Business. Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English Poetry from Sri Lanka and its Diasporas (Bloodaxe 2023, Penguin India 2023) which she co-edited with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Seni Seneviratne, was a Poetry Book Society Special Recommendation and one of the Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year for 2023. Shash has presented at academic conferences both in the U.K and abroad, has been on judging panels for English PEN and the Gratien Trust in Sri Lanka and has been a mentor for New Writing North and the National Centre for Writing. Her work has recently been conserved by the Poetry Archive. An experienced workshop leader, she is a Ledbury Critic and a Board Member of Modern Poetry in Translation.

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.