Catch A Falling Star: Poetry Workshop with Nabina Das
Discovering a Moment of Expression – Poetry Workshop with poet and writer, Nabina Das
In Collaboration with Red River Publishing
The workshop aims to infuse into the discussion and readings the ethos of the poet’s Northeast upbringing – how nature and humans may align in joy and harmony and seek to reduce the imbalance between perceived margins and the mainstream.
June 16: Fireflies in a jar?
Participants and a general introduction. We warm up with a few favourite readings and discuss them. We identify prompts, themes, and styles. Then we take home a little thought exercise for the night. Informal reading after hours is a great idea, even a song, or just get the guitar out!
June 17: Close read, close-knit
Always a good idea to read along a theme to set the morning tone. A set of exercises — written or otherwise — to trigger imagination, embracing a feeling, holding that idea nugget on the tip of our pen. Group or individual efforts. Seeing poems bloom. After hours — catch a falling star!
June 18: And then my heart with pleasure fills…
Nature walk, writing outdoors (weather permitting), meet the community, learn a local song or story. Make poetry a carrier for your emotions and experiences. Transform the rhythms of nature into words, your moment of expression in poetry!
June 19: Process is progress
Group work, collaborative methods, future plans. Poetry is a roadmap that never ends. Where does the journey lead us? Discuss minor forms of making poetry a continuous effort. In a world riddled with troubles and woes, poetry perhaps can show the way forward.
June 20: Country road, take me home…
The concluding day will see participants bring in their writing. However small and new, it is to be proud of. Poetry is never the end, only the beginning. So we can celebrate our unique effort at Buddhapada.
Registration is mandatory. Maximum participants: 15
Writers of any language and genre are welcome to participate. Proficiency in English is a must. Instructions will be in English.
Open to all poets, aspiring and establibshed. New poets are especially encouraged.
Free. By Donation. Meals and Accommodation at actuals.
The Workshop will begin on the evening of June 16 and end in the evening of June 20. Please plan to arrive and depart accordingly.
About the Instructor—
Nabina Das is a poet and writer born and brought up in Guwahati, Assam, and currently based in Hyderabad, Telangana. Published widely, her latest poetry collection Anima and the Narrative Limits is from Yoda Press. Her other poetry collections are Sanskarnama (Red River, 2017), Into the Migrant City (Writers Workshop, 2013), and Blue Vessel (Les Editions du Zaporogue, 2012). Her debut book is a novel titled Footprints in the Bajra (Cedar Books, 2010), and her short fiction volume is titled The House of Twining Roses: Stories of the Mapped and the Unmapped (LiFi Publications, 2014). Her first book of translations titled Arise out of the Lock: 50 Bangladeshi Women Poets in English (curated by Alam Khorshed, Bistaar, Chittagong) appeared in early 2022 from Balestier Press, UK. A Rutgers University (Camden, NJ) MFA alumna, and with a background in Linguistics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Nabina is the editor of WITNESS, The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent (Red River, 2021), and co-editor of 40 under 40, an Anthology of Post-globalisation Poetry (Poetrywala, 2016). Nabina is a 2017 Sahapedia-UNESCO fellow, a 2012 Charles Wallace Creative Writing fellow (Stirling University, Scotland), a 2016 Commonwealth Writers features correspondent, a 2012 Sangam House Lavanya Sankaran fiction fellow, a 2011 NYS Summer Writers Institute alumna, and a 2007 Wesleyan Writers Conference creative writing alumna. She writes columns and essays for magazines and newspapers and teaches Creative Writing in workshops and classrooms.
Email us at [email protected] to register and visit www.buddhapada.in for other details.