Writing Rites, Enacting Poetry

Write your own rites of spring. Join poets Nia Davies and Síofra McSherry for a day of creative writing and activity, exploring the relationship between ritual and poetry. It will unpack the ways in which ceremonial techniques can open gateways in the creative process. Participants will learn how rituals are structured and how to apply ritual-based approaches to writing. Get ready to experience embodiment and intention; group activities include working with thresholds, gesture and material objects. Through practical exercises participants are supported in producing new poetry and artistic acts. For those with an established personal ritual practice, the workshop will be of help in working with poetry as a means to create transformative rituals. 

The workshop is suitable for both beginner and experienced poets.

Nia Davies is poet, performer and literary curator. She is currently researching and writing poetry and ritual at the University of Salford. Her first book-length collection of poems All fours (Bloodaxe Books, 2017). This followed the pamphlets England (Crater, 2017),  Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmısınız or Long Words (Hafan/Boiled String, 2016) and Then Spree (Salt, 2012). She was editor of the international quarterly magazine Poetry Wales from 2014 to 2019 and has worked on several intercultural and collaborative projects. Nia's website.

Síofra McSherry, born in Northern Ireland, has published her poetry widely in anthologies and journals in the UK, including Poetry Wales and the Salt Book of Younger Poets. Her pamphlet Requiem is forthcoming in 2019 from the Emma Press. She also works as a workshop facilitator and trainer at Scienza Berlin, and accepts private clients for life and creative writing coaching. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow and instructor in American Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, where she earned her PhD. Síofra completed her BA in English at the University of Oxford and received her MA from UCL. She holds a counselling certificate from Birkbeck.