Childhood Memories & Time Travel

Studio Session with Jane Commane on 10 Dec!

This is a one-off section with Jane Commane on 10 December, 2023 from 3:30-5:00pm. Participants need to reserve the time and install Zoom for this special session.

All students are required to fill in the form to complete the registration process.

Course in process!

The poem can start with him walking backwards into a room.

He takes off his jacket and sits down for the rest of his life;

that’s how we bring Dad back.

                                                                       Backwards by Warsan Shire

How do we excavate our deep-seated childhood memories, their revelatory power, their logic and sheer beauty? How do we portray or structure the passage of time and epiphanies within the space of a poem?

In this course, participants will be introduced to the relevant works from a diverse range of contemporary poets (including Li-Young Lee, Kim Addonizio, Richard Siken, Nina Mingya Powles, Warsan Shire, Robert Hayden, Pascale Petit), and be guided to develop a portfolio of new work that explores these themes. We will also pay special focus to the experimentation of poetic voice, playing with forms and language. Towards the end of the course, we will also discuss ways to get published and share your own work, with a special talk from Jane Commane (Publisher, Nine Arches Press) on editing and publishing poetry.

Course Timeline

Jennifer Wong

Jennifer Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong and now lives in the UK. Wong is the author of 回家 Letters Home (Nine Arches Press, 2020), which was named the PBS Spring 2020 Wild Card Choice. She has taught creative writing at Poetry School, City Lit, Oxford Brookes University and was writer in residence at Wasafiri in 2021. Together with Jason Eng Hun Lee and Tim Tim Cheng, she co-edited Where Else: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (Verve Poetry Press, 2023). Her book, Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere in Contemporary Chinese Diaspora Poetry was published by Bloomsbury in 2023. She co-edited State of Play: Poets of East and Southeast Heritage in Conversation (Outspoken, 2023). Her poems have appeared in Poetry London, Wasafiri, Sinetheta, Poetry Wales, Prairie Schooner, The Rialto, Washington Square Review, Magma Poetry, Voice and Verse, Harana Poetry, Wildness, The Scores, Asian Cha, Bi+ anthology edited by Helen Bowell and Under Your Pillow anthology (Victorina Press) edited by Charley Barnes and Wendy Allen. twitter @jennywcreative and instagram @Jenniferwswong