Tanya Shirley
What happens when literary techniques such as imagery, figurative language and rhythm encounter the language and subject matter of historical accounts and current affairs? How can poetry be used as a vehicle to convey and interrogate factual information while paying attention to emotional resonance and making space for the imagination and a personal perspective?
Through discussions and close readings of contemporary poets who have responded to historical records as well as the lived reality of wars, invasions, scientific inventions, medical diagnoses and natural disasters, this workshop will expose participants to the multiple ways a poem can be constructed as a kind of document.
Participants will also be guided through generative writing exercises to develop and strengthen their ability to produce poems that combine facts with poetic elements.
Tanya Shirley has published two poetry collections: She Who Sleeps With Bones (Peepal Tree Press, 2009) and The Merchant of Feathers (Peepal Tree Press, 2014). She is a featured poet on Poetry Archive. She has read her poems and conducted writing workshops in Venezuela, Canada, the U.S.A., England, Scotland, and the Caribbean.
Shirley was awarded an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, USA. She teaches in the Department of Literatures in English at The University of the West Indies, Jamaica.
She has been writer-in-residence twice at Sierra Nevada College, Lake Tahoe and is a proud Cave Canem Fellow.
Her second poetry collection, The Merchant of Feathers, was longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and shortlisted for the Guyana Prize for Literature, Caribbean Award. In 2017 she was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal from The Council of the Institute of Jamaica for her outstanding contribution in the field of Literature.
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