Welcome to WRDPNTRS!
This workshop is 4 sessions long. In it, you will discover varied points of access to the world of poetry, including crossovers into other genres such as graphic forms.
You may complete this course at any pace you like. Make sure to save your work!
Meet Your Mentors
Each New Shoots virtual workshop was led by two mentors from the University of British Columbia’s School of Creative Writing. Bios are accurate as of the original workshop time period (2021).
Sonia Di Placido
Sonia Di Placido (she/her) is a writer of poetry, plays, literary fiction, CNF essays. Sonia graduated from the Ryerson Theatre School in 1996 and received a Hons BA in Humanities from York University in 2006. Essays and fiction have appeared in numerous journals such as Canthuis, Puritan, Carousel, Minola Review, Juniper, The Temz Review, Jacket 2, The White Wall Review. Currently, Sonia is completing her thesis with the Creative Writing MFA Opt-Res program at the University of British Columbia. She has published 3 chapbooks: Forest Primitive, Aeolus House Press, 2008, Vulva Magic (2004) and The Akashic Wood (2016) with Lyricalmyracle Press an imprint of Quattro Books. Two books of poetry, Exaltation in Cadmium Red (2012) and Flesh (2018), are published with Guernica Editions. Sonia was reviewed in the Quill and Quire for Flesh in the November 2018 issue, The Temz Review, Jacket 2, and The California Journal of Women Writers. Visit Sonia’s website here.
Kathleen Wah
Kathleen Wah is an artist, poet, and illustrator. She is an MFA candidate in the Creative Writing (Optional Residency) Program at the University of British Columbia. She has an Hons. BFA Visual Arts and Creative Writing from York University in 2017. Her work was exhibited at the Gales Gallery (2014) and Gallery Hittite (2015).
Her practice mixes gestalt and language forms. She is interested in hybrid forms of painting, printmaking and poetry: integrating word and image into a communicative form. Meaning becomes derived from the whole of the product, not two separate rather one complementary form. She finds inspiration in works such as Jen Bervin’s interpretation of Su Hui’s “Picture of The Turning Sphere,” Mita Mahato’s “Dream,” and Liana Fincke’s Passing for Human. These works appear radically different: their greatest difference is the status of their preferred media. However, their attention to word and image does something similar: meaning is derived from interweaving word and image. Visit Kathleen’s website here.
Introductory Video
In this video, New Shoots mentors Sonia Di Placido and Kathleen Wah give a land acknowledgment, tell you about themselves and their careers, and share a little of their own work.
Land Acknowledgement Poem
Course Guide
Return here at any time for an overview. To jump right into it, click the button below!
- Session 1: Introductions and Object Writing
- Session 2: Interaction of Words and Images
- Session 3: “Ekphrastic” Poetry
- Session 4: Poetry Comics
NOTE: References to New Shoots programming in these videos do not apply to those viewing the content. Only current New Shoots participants may submit work to this year’s anthology.
newshoots.ca 