Date: April 18, 2020, 10:30 – 2:30
Tickets: $70
Location: sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ GVPL James Bay Branch 385 Menzies Street
This four-hour workshop presents the sonnet, often viewed as an outdated poetic form, as a tool to explore contemporary concerns, one that, because of its short length and versatility, can be incorporated into a regular writing practice. Participants will be introduced to the rules of the form, then work on creating sonnets of their own. The workshop will be concluded with a discussion of how to exploit the sonnet’s potential to keep writing and to explore one’s own life experience. Writers of all levels welcome.
John Barton is the author of twenty-six books, chapbooks, and anthologies, with his 27th book—Lost Family: A Memoir, a book of sonnets—upcoming from Signal this fall. Since 1980, magazines, newspapers, and anthologies on four continents have published his poems, essays, and reviews. A three-time recipient of the Archibald Lampman Award, he’s also won an Ottawa Book Award, a CBC Literary Award, and a National Magazine Award. Between 1989 and 2018 John edited Arc Poetry Magazine, Vernissage: The National Gallery of Canada, and The Malahat Review. He is the City of Victoria’s fifth, first male and first queer poet laureate.