A Passion for Words with Lorna Crozier

August 19 – 21, 2011

(Friday evening through Sunday afternoon)

In this guided writing retreat, poet and teacher Lorna Crozier will work with you to help you find your stories, your voice, and your passion for words. Each morning we will we get together and everyone will read new work, and in the afternoons there will be time for contemplation, individual consultations, and writing.

Unlike what happens in a regular workshop, as a group you will not be editing poems that have already been committed to the page. Instead, Lorna will give you exercises meant to inspire and generate new material. You will leave this writing retreat at Wintergreen with new poems tucked into your pockets and ideas that will inspire you to continue writing when you get back home.

You will be asked to bring only one poem to the course, and you will be given directions about this poem two weeks before the course begins.

After everyone has settled in at Wintergreen on Friday evening, Lorna will lead the first of three guided writing sessions. You will work on your own writing on Saturday morning, followed by another guided writing session in the early afternoon. The day will close with a late afternoon session on craft. After dinner on Saturday evening, Lorna will give a public reading of her poetry, followed by a question period. Sunday will begin with exercises in the morning, and after lunch, you will once again have time for your own writing. After lunch, we will close the workshop with a reading by the group. The workshop will close by 4 pm on Sunday afternoon.

If you love the sound and shape of words, if you are ready to express the small narratives and emotions of your own lives, if you are ready to explore the spirit within you and in the people, places, and things around you, this guided retreat is for you.

About the Instructor

Lorna Crozier has published 14 books of poetry which have garnered Canada’s top awards, including the Governor-General’s Award, two Pat Lowther Awards and the National Magazine Award’s Gold Medal for Poetry. She is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Victoria and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2005 she read at a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. Two universities have awarded her honorary doctorates for her contribution to Canadian literature. She is a frequent guest on CBC radio and has read her poetry on every continent except Antarctica. A bilingual Spanish edition of her poems called La Perspectiva Del Gato was published in Mexico in 2009. Her most recent publication is Small Beneath the Sky, A Prairie Memoir. Her poems have been set to music, made into a film and used as themes in paintings and pottery. She conducted a writing retreat at Wintergreen in the summer of 2010 to much acclaim. Called “a poet to be grateful for” by Margaret Lawrence, she has been an ambassador for poetry wherever she goes.

Tuition: $375. HST extra.

Accommodation and meals for the duration of the workshop (two nights and six meals): $195 (tenting p.p.), $250 (bunks p.p.), $280 (shared rooms or cabins, p.p.), $320 (double bed, single occupancy), $450 (double bed, shared). For those staying off-site, facilities and meals are an additional $150. Participants wishing to arrive Thursday, August 18 (the night before the workshop begins) should add $75 for the extra night, dinner, and breakfast. HST extra.