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Brendan Ryan - Creating Narratives with Poetry

Local Word Writers Festival

Here is a workshop that will help you transform your experiences and observations into narrative poetry.

In this workshop you will learn to use imagery, metaphor, line length and become familiar with poetic forms to arrive at a poetic truth different from your experiences. You will be encouraged to develop scenes, moments and woven narratives to create new poems that speak to their own narrative structure.

You can draw upon everyday observations and experiences, family stories and memories to draft and develop your narrative poems. A range of model poems will be provided to inspire and motivate you.

Participants can work and develop existing drafts of poems or develop new narrative poems in the workshop. To reach your goal of writing a narrative poem, you will undertake a combination of group and solo writing activities across the three- four hour workshop with the option of workshopping your poems with other participants during the session.

At the conclusion of the workshop, you will have one or more crafted narrative poems to take home.

This workshop is available for up to 20 people aged 18+ with some skill level in poetry. Participants new to poetry are welcome as well as those who are more experienced. Workshop length is 4 hours including breaks, a light lunch and drinks will be provided.

Tickets: $40 or $20 for concession holders

Brendan Ryan lives in Geelong and is the author of eight poetry collections. His poetry, reviews and essays have been widely published in literary journals and newspapers. His poems have been shortlisted for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, The Newcastle Poetry Prize, the ACU Poetry Prize and his collection, Travelling Through the Family was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Prize. His memoir, Walk Like a Cow, was published in 2020 with Walleah Press. What it Feels Like: New and Selected Poems, was published by Recent Work Press in 2025.

Instagram: @brendanryanwriter
Facebook: BrendanRyanPoetry

To discover more of our fabulous local writers, visit our Local Authors Fair from 12pm-3pm on Saturday 29 August at Geelong Library & Heritage Centre - free entry and refreshments provided

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