In his poem, ‘Stony Grey Soil,’ Patrick Kavanagh writes of his native County Monaghan, the conflicted site of his poetic inspiration, lamenting that despite his punishing upbringing where he was fed ‘swinish food’ he prays that he can ‘stroke the monster’s back’ and write poems through the darkness. Join poet Victoria Kennefick in this workshop series which challenges you to push through unconscious self-inflicted restraints and boundaries to write new, unexpected and more challenging poems with prompts inspired by Irish poets like Patrick Kavanagh, W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Seán Hewitt, Rosamund Taylor, Rita Ann Higgins, Paul Durcan, Jean O’Brien, Gustav Parker Hibbett and many more.

Learning outcomes

As part of this workshop, you will:

Learn from our international Poet-in-Residence in a relaxed, fun and playful environment.
Discover new directions for your writing.
Investigate Irish poets.
Find out if you can write with an 'unpoisoned pen'.

Format

This is an in-person workshop with a focus on writing craft; it will be held at the State Library of Queensland. This workshop is suitable for writers of all levels and backgrounds.

Two x 2 hour sessions

Saturday 2nd Aug - 2.30-4.30pm (open mic reading to follow)

Saturday 9th Aug - 2.30-4.30pm (open mic reading to follow)

About Victoria

Dr Victoria Kennefick is a writer, poet, editor and teacher. Her debut collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Poetry Book Award, Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and the Butler Literary Prize. Her second collection, Egg/Shell (Carcanet Press, 2024) was a Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2024 and BBC Poetry Extra Book of the Month for March as well as a Book of the Year in The Telegraph, The Sunday Independent and The Poetry Society UK. She completed a PhD in Irish and American Literature at University College Cork and was a Fulbright Scholar at Emory University. She was Poet in Residence of the Yeats Society Sligo 2022, Arts Council/University College Dublin Writer in Residence 2023 and Cork County Council Writer in Residence 2024. She is the 2025 Arts Council of Ireland/Trinity College Dublin Writer Fellow.

For more information about Queensland Writers Centre’s Program of Events and answers to FAQs, please visit: www.queenslandwriters.org.au/program-info