Jennifer Wong’s poetry course: an introduction on poetic forms and storytelling
by Paola Caronni
I enjoyed Jennifer Wong’s poetry workshop, organised by Kubrick Poetry, very much. Jennifer picked interesting forms of poetry, like ekphrastic poetry, sonnet, prose poems – and themes like family, food, self, city, identity, etc. that were very familiar to all of us. The process of creating a poem following a theme or a prompt, and workshopping other people’s works, was very useful. It was a framework that allowed us to push ourselves to write more and deliver our work on time. It was good to have the possibility to do so via Google Drive, and the system put in place by Kubrick Poetry worked well, even if having a dedicated area/website set up by Kubrick together with Google Drive, pushed people to opt for Google Drive only. It was a pity that not many people replied or commented on the website dedicated to the workshop, which was supposed to serve as a forum.
The material that Jennifer shared with us, informative or in the form of famous poets’ works, was really the best way to get inspired. The pace of the workshop was good and we had enough time to prepare our own drafts. I liked reading the poems of my classmates to have a different view about how the same topic was seen from other people’s perspectives.
The three live sessions were the highlights of the workshop, and I wish we had more of them, as they were interactive and therefore more stimulating. During these sessions, we could share ideas with our classmates, ask Jennifer any questions and get an immediate reply, and go through the process of commenting on the different edits and other classmates’ poems in a very constructive way. Finally, during our last class, it was good to virtually meet Jane Commane who, as a poet and editor, shared her insight with us.
Jennifer is a very engaging tutor, always willing to share tips and advice. She was able to make us all feel comfortable and willing to learn from each other, with the aim of possibly turning our drafts into polished poems.
The workshop was overall a very useful learning experience for me, mainly because of the weekly commitment to writing following a set theme; the sharing of ideas; the constructive comments from our tutor/poet, and the continuous ‘conversation’ with our classmates.
It also made of me a more ‘focused’ poet, who pays attention to the form, the rhythm and the message that I want to convey when I write.
Finally, I was very glad that the ekphrastic draft poem written during one of the workshop classes, ‘Inle Illusion’(and polished later), was published by the German-based online journal ‘The Wild Word’ and entered by them for ‘Best of the Net 2021’.
Jennifer Wong’s Eco-poetry course: Learning poetry voice and forms through eco-poetry
by Joy Al-Sofi
I found the Ecopoetry class with Jennifer Wong to be very stimulating. Her reading materials and visuals, along with the suggested exercises helped me to focus more on my concerns regarding the environment in new ways, such as focusing on a particular animal photo, and a wildlife video and seeing where it led. The class encouraged me to explore both sonnet form and prose poems, which I had not worked with previously.
Jennifer Wong’s Eco-poetry course: Learning poetry voice and forms through eco-poetry
by Jon McLeod (based in UK)
I hugely enjoyed the Ecopoetry course run by Poetry Kubrick and expertly tutored by Jennifer Wong. The course brought together participants from Hong Kong and around the world, leading to fascinating discussions.
Jennifer’s stimulus material and prompts for writing were all brilliant. There were plenty of opportunities to develop initial drafts in the session and share work in progress. Each participant received extremely positive and helpful feedback from Jennifer and other participants in both written and verbal form. I felt that I came away from the course with a much better understanding of ‘Ecopoetry’ and with several poems of my own to develop further.
The administration of the course was excellent – everything ran very smoothly and queries were addressed quickly and fully. The course material was easily accessible throughout the course.
I would certainly recommend this course or any other run by Poetry Kubrick to anyone interested in improving their poetry writing and widening their knowledge of contemporary poetry.
Mitch Berman’s fiction course: Writing from a grain of sand
by Yeung Chak Yan (based in Japan)
Mitch is a great teacher. He spent a lot of time on each of our stories, giving detailed comments and great suggestions on how we could improve our writing. He also tailored his lectures based on our questions and our stories, covering many topics from writing techniques to choosing literary magazines for submission. I learned a lot from this course!
Mitch Berman’s fiction course: Writing from a grain of sand
by Vishal Nanda
Mitch’s class is fantastic. Aside from his experience and feedback that was specific to each of our pieces, Mitch also created an open and constructive environment for discussion among all of us, whether about the text he assigned or for each other’s work. His advice and comments have helped me improve as a writer and his passion for good composition is contagious. I cannot recommend him highly enough!
廖偉棠的詩歌班「城市與當下的詩」、「修辭立其誠」、「學古寫今之道」
學生周昭亮(新加坡）
廖偉棠既是詩人又是評論家，對詩歌的見解深遠而情真，課程涉獵中外新舊的詩人，從不流於玩弄技巧的層次。對寫詩有一定程度的朋友，能藉此深化對現代詩的見解，超越故有寫作的層次；初次接觸現代詩的朋友，就能藉此見識令人驚艷的現代詩世界。
廖偉棠的詩歌班「城市與當下的詩」、「修辭立其誠」、「學古寫今之道」
學生林嵐
本來，上詩班是我作為中年人重拾夢想之舉，没有多大期望。源於本人喜歡閱讀，喜歡詩，也喜歡用詩，但不太懂。上了課後，仍然未能寫出好詩，是自己懶吧。每個行業總有最頂尖的人，廖老師是表表者，我則更喜歡作為欣賞者。能讀得懂多一點，想多一點，欣賞其精妙，已是得著。一首好詩，聽了廖老師的導讀後，再看，再想，更覺得心神充沛。上他的課像是上體育課，不過，是思想的運動和按摩。
意外收獲的是，廖老師講故事般的註解，非在其他文章中找得到。文詞間的跳動和呼應，有著視覺藝術中對物件擺置的處理方式。有此體會後，我也常分享此法給學生們。此外，喜歡他將古今、中西、雅俗串通來講，也只有他這種通博之人，才有此能耐。最欣賞的是，廖老師作為香港詩人，人雖不在，仍心繫香港，將香港的歷史，生活，文化，和他對社會的想法融在教學中，體現作為活躍詩人（ practicing poet) 教學的可貴之處。有幸他仍肯教，分享他的洞察，感恩。
如廖老師仍有時間開課，我一定會再捧場。他所知，所想，所做的分享都已是精彩的講課了。
廖偉棠的詩歌班「學古寫今之道」和李智良的「實驗書寫工作坊」
學生林嘉寶
我分別在2021年的2月及5月參與了Poetry Kubrick舉辦的廖偉棠的詩歌寫作班「學古寫今之道」以及李智良的實驗書寫工作坊，獲益良多，故此分享。若日後再開辦類似的工作坊，我也非常推薦熱愛文學的朋友們參加。
兩位都是香港出色的作家，皆具有豐富的文學知識及廣闊的視野。對於在疫情下無奈的我、沒有足夠空間回歸校園學習的我而言，這個經驗實在可貴。
香港很缺乏空間。無論是實體空間，還是人的精神領域都不免有些空蕩蕩的。2020疫情來襲，更是把人困在了小籠子裡，人與人之間愈發疏離。我很幸運，在這段時間與詩歌、文字、藝術來一番長談。她們提醒我：在人的想像世界裡，你可以走無限遠的路，往無限深的海，衝出天外天。
首先在偉棠的寫作班裡，我們並不是學寫華麗的辭藻，而是從不同的念頭出發進行創作。偉棠鼓勵我們互相評論同學們的作品，這是非常好的，共同進步呢。
到了5月，智良的寫作班又是另一種模式。我們必須在課前閱讀大量作品（包括小說、理論書、實驗作品）、觀賞影片等等。在課堂中，學識淵博的智良獨到的分析令我們的視野更開闊。我也問了自己更多的問題：為何寫作？如何寫作？
每一個時代都有人們需要面對的困難。是的，對一些人而言（包括我）坐在電腦前學習是痛苦的，可是我堅信萬事都是雙面的。在屬於自己的空間開啟無限的空間，也許是一件不錯的事。我依然很珍惜這數月的學習及瘋狂創作，也感謝Poetry Kubrick、兩位老師、同學們的相伴。謝謝。