Join The Dartmoor Summer Haiku Almanac workshop and walk on Sunday 13 June from 10am to 4pm, with workshop leaders Alan Summers and Karen Hoy.
The aim of the day is to produce Dartmoor Haiku for the creation of a Devon Haiku Almanac. This follows in the tradition of haiku poets in Japan, who traditionally produce seasonal almanacs – Haiku Saijiki. An important note from the organisers is to bring both old and new Devon/Dartmoor colloquial terms, nicknames, sayings, and street slang to help create a Haiku Saijiki for Devon. You’ll also need to bring pens and paper, and a packed lunch if coming for a full day. Tea and coffee is available. If appropriate, please bring outdoor wear (even sunscreen!) suitable for the weather and month on Dartmoor.
The workshop will include warm up exercises and group discussion/Q&A with a complimentary Haiku Journal notebook for each person. There will also be opportunities for micro one-to-one feedback for anyone bringing previously written haiku draft poems.The day will also include a walk with a second complimentary Haiku Journal notebook to use for recording field-notes and/or rough drafts.
Alan Summers: “Haiku are poems rooted in natural history and the seasons; they make us conspirators with wildlife, as nature half-writes the haiku before we’ve even put pen to paper.”
Workshop fees are by donation, with a suggested £10 to £25 for all day. Workshops must be booked in advance as numbers are often limited. To reserve your place call or email Jennie Osborne on 01803 840541 or jenniedancing@googlemail.com. There is a special offer: These workshops are for members of Moor Poets, so if you’re not already a member, your first workshop fee will also automatically make you a member for this year.
Alan Summers is a Japanese poetry expert and tutor/director of With Words; a Japan Times award-winning writer; 2009 Embassy of Japan ’Japan-UK 150′ haiku & renga poet-in-residence, and published on the BBC Poetry Season website. Alan is also joint co-ordinator (with June Wentland) of The 1000 Verse Renga Project. He has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, and is a widely published and translated haiku poet, and experienced workshop leader. Alan founded With Words, an organisation that exists to promote the love and enjoyment of words through literacy work, and literature events.
Karen Hoy is a published haiku writer and has assisted Alan with both Poetry School and other workshops. Karen is published in “My Mother Threw Knives” Second Light Publications (2006) and was Highly Commended in the BBC Wildlife Magazine’s Nature Writer of the Year Awards, 2009.
