We have a busy autumn season coming up at Quay Words, the live literature programme produced by Literature Works at Exeter’s historic Custom House. Our poet-in-residence, the award-winning Fathima Zahra, will be engaging with the season’s ‘Routes’ theme in several ways and we’re bringing another excellent value short course for developing poets. Read on…
How do we get from A to B or * to @ in a poem? A poem is a journey that can move inward and outwards at the same time, speed like an arrow and grind forwards like a glacier all in the same stanza. In these sessions we’ll be thinking about how different writers handle narrative journeys, how lines may have their own shape-changing stories as they channel meaning and images through them, and how metaphors shuttle us on strange journeys between things.
Alongside close readings focusing on formal matters and matters of material, we’ll find time to think about how poets make and authorise their journeys through a writing life by reading some of their reflections of their practices, and by reflecting on our own unique journey to the page and/or the stage. Expect a mix of reading, writing, and reflection in each of our sessions together.
The course will take place on 5 consecutive Saturdays in November (starting 2nd November), 11am-1pm and is now available to book.
Fathima Zahra will be exploring our Routes theme through research into local and larger migrational histories. She’ll be working with the Quay Words team to install an interactive writing activity at the Custom House with ‘Routes’ themed prompts to inspire visitors. She will also be facilitating regular public events throughout her residency, including poetry workshops and Quay Words’ very first book club. All of Fathima’s residency events will be bookable for free on a pay-what-you-can basis.
Fathima Zahra – photo: Abi B
‘I am looking forward to being in Exeter and walking through the quayside. I grew up across Kerala and Jeddah before moving to England, and have always felt grounded living near the water. I’ll be tracing the journey of my family’s migration across these places before moving to England. I would like to explore my relationship to water and think through these with the public in our events.’
Fathima Zahra, poet-in-residence at Quay Words for Autumn 204
We’ll soon be announcing Fathima’s poetry workshop, but you can already get your place on her book club, which will focus on Safiya Sinclair’s How To Say Babylon. Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024, How to Say Babylon is a compelling, lyrical memoir about family, education and resilience. Book now to join in the discussion of this fascinating book!
