Writing Engaging Poetry with Jarad Bruinstroop

How to write poems that don’t bore your readers.

Have you ever fallen asleep while reading a book of poems? Did you ever wonder why so many poems felt the same? If so, you have been a victim of boring poetry. Your poetry should be memorable, enjoyable and fun.

In this workshop, poet Jarad Bruinstroop will give you some tips and exercises to help you avoid writing boring poetry. Learn to write poetry that readers, judges and editors will remember.

Learning outcomes

As part of this workshop, you will:

• Look at examples of interesting poetry.

• Identify ways you can improve your poetry to make it more enjoyable.

• Develop ideas to generate new poems.

• Create a poem that you can take away.

• Play with one of your drafts and see what you can make of it.

Format

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

About Jarad

Jarad Bruinstroop is a writer who lives in Meanjin. His debut poetry collection, Reliefs, won the 2022 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. As the 2022 University of Queensland Fryer Library Creative Writing Fellow, he is developing a novella cycle that draws on Brisbane’s Queer history and the Fryer Library special collections. In 2023, he won the Val Vallis Award. His work has appeared in Best of Australian Poetry, Meanjin, Overland, HEAT, Island, Westerly, TEXT, Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal, Rabbit and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from QUT where he also teaches.

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