Write Queer Nature Poetry
Event WebsiteJames McDermott, LGBTQ+ playwright, poet and creative writing teacher, returns with this hugely popular workshop series (4 sessions) exploring the queerness of nature and helping you generate queer nature poetry. For all writer levels incl. beginners. 15 Participants Max. Starts Mon 19th June 2023.
Monday 19th June 7pm-9pm
Mon 26th June 7pm – 9pm
Mon 3 July 7pm -9pm
Mon 10th July 7pm-9pm
The Course
Water is a fluid body. Many mammals exhibit bisexual behaviour. Onions, potatoes and strawberries all reproduce asexually. There are around 300,000 genders of fungi. In short, nature is queer!
Through a series of writing exercises and group discussions of poems from Walt Whitman to Lisa Luxx, Caleb Parkin to Gail McConnell, learn tools and techniques to help you re-see the natural world through a queer lens, generate new queer eco-poems and explore the queerness of nature in your poetry. Throughout the course, there will be opportunities to read aloud your work and receive constructive peer feedback. The course will culminate with (optional) readings plus a discussion of how and where to submit poetry to magazines, presses and competitions. The course is aimed at poets/writers at any level.
Attendees will learn tools to help them see the natural world through a queer lens.
Attendees will learn tools to help them plan, write and rewrite poems.
Attendees will learn about imagery and metaphor, form and structure, rhythm and rhyme.
Attendees will have the space and time to share their work and receive peer feedback
Attendees will have the space and time to read and discuss as a group extracts from seminal queer nature poems which illustrate ideas discussed in the class
Attendees will learn tools to help them read, analyse and discuss queer nature poetry.
Attendees will have the space and time to discuss how to start and sustain a career as a freelance poet
As part of the last session, attendees will have the opportunity, only if they wish, to share some of the writing they have done during the course.
Partial Bursaries
Limited places are available for writers who would otherwise be unable to afford to attend. To request a bursary, please email contact@outonthepage.co.uk.
About James McDermott
Scriptwriter, Poet & Creative Writing Teacher
Website: jamesmcdermottwriter.weebly.com
Literary Agent: Independent Talent
James poetry books include ‘Wild Life’ (Nine Arches Press), ‘Green Apple Red’ (Broken Sleep
Books), ‘Erased’ (Polari Press) and ‘Manatomy’ (Burning Eye Books). James has been published in Poetry Wales,
The North, Butcher’s Dog, Ink Sweat & Tears and Fourteen Poems. James has taught poetry for venues and
organisations nationwide including Out On The Page, Nottingham Writers Centre and London Queer Writers.
James is now an Arvon writing tutor, visiting lecturer at Norwich University of The Arts and lecturer in Creative
Writing at UEA.
