Voice & Surprise: An Approach to Ekphrasis. Poetry Masterclass with Tara Bergin

When we’re writing a poem, how and when should we strike a balance between ‘the ‘lyric impulse’ and the ‘mind thinking’? In this poetry workshop, we will consider this question by experimenting with voice, using visual art as a starting point. Through a series of writing exercises in response to artworks and the language of art, we will try to draft work that surprises – maybe even shocks – us with what it does…ekphrasis that doesn’t sound like ekphrasis.

Tara Bergin is an Irish poet, born in Dublin. She has published three collections of poetry with Carcanet Press: This is Yarrow, winner of the Seamus Heaney Prize for Poetry; The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and Forward Prizes; and most recently Savage Tales, listed as one of the Irish Times ‘best new poetry books of 2022’ and shortlisted for the Pigott Prize for Poetry 2023. Reviewing the latter collection for The Irish Times, Stephen Sexton wrote: ‘Tara Bergin’s Savage Tales underlines her position as one of our most exciting poets. […] generous and humane and utterly compelling.’ Tara now lives in the North of England and teaches in the Creative Writing Programme at Newcastle University.