https://devotionworkshop.com Devotion Workshop Fri, 17 Sep 2021 10:29:09 +0000 https://devotionworkshop.com en https://devotionworkshop.com/Home Fri, 17 Sep 2021 10:29:06 +0000 Devotion Workshop https://devotionworkshop.com/Home Devotion is a practice-based creative writing workshop that nurtures writing practices through communal writing sessions that foster accountability, solidarity and collective learning.  Winter 2024/25 Devotion Workshops Be Strong Bernadette Workshops Thursdays from 6pm-8pm UK time via Zoom. November 21, 28, December 5, 12 & 19 + Solstice Event Saturday December 21st Be Strong Bernadette is a new five week online workshop exploring late New York School poet Bernadette Mayer's archive, concluding with an online marathon reading of her seminal text Midwinter Day on Winter Solstice.  Each week we will look at a series of poems from a different part of Mayer's archive as prompts for writing. Techniques explored will include: writing through and with time, writing and domesticity, writing and caregiving, the sonnet form, life as material, working with found language and collage, automatic writing, durational writing. Book Now Absolute BeginnersWorkshops Thursdays from 6pm-8pm UK time via Zoom.January 16, 23, 30, February 6 & 13 Our signature Devotion workshop, Absolute Beginners is a five week online writing course for those just starting to write, coming back to writing after a hiatus, in a rut with their practice, finding their existing tools and techniques stale, or just wanting to refresh their approach to writing. No homework, no preparation, everybody welcome. Topics covered: *Why we write *What writing can do for us emotionally, creatively, intellectually and spiritually *How to build writing routines, prompts and creative play into our lives *Writing with and through burnout *Metaphor and imagery *Originality, newness and vitality of expression *Finding form(s) *Working with resistance *Pleasure, joy and excess as antidotes to writer’s block Book Now https://devotionworkshop.com/About Fri, 17 Sep 2021 10:29:09 +0000 Devotion Workshop https://devotionworkshop.com/About About Devotion is a practice-based creative writing workshop that nurtures writing practices through communal writing sessions that foster accountability, solidarity and collective learning. Through a mixture of writing prompts (inspired by poetry, novels, films, music, memoirs and more) and open discussion, writers of any level from absolute beginner to published authors can explore new techniques and themes. A key part of every Devotion workshop is quiet writing time, and Devotion distinguishes itself from traditional creative writing workshops through an emphasis on the practice of writing itself, rather than the workshopping of existing work in progress. Devotion is also an amorphous, queer and open community, built on the generous, enthusiastic and loyal attendees. Devotion is run by poet and writer Sophie Robinson and writer Stevie Mackenzie-Smith who together bring creative, critical and academic experience to the workshops. Sophie founded and leads Devotion on the principles of radical pedagogy. By operating outside the academic institution and offering a fairly priced sliding scale payment model, they are able to sustain and nurture a fluid and inclusive writing space for all. About Sophie Sophie Robinson is a poet and writer. She has published three books of poetry, most recently Rabbit (Boiler House Press, 2018). She has taught creative writing for over a decade, most notably at the University of East Anglia, where she has been a Lecturer in Creative Writing since 2014. Sophie has also been published in The Guardian, BOMB, The Quietus, Believer Magazine, Stylist, The White Review and N+1, amongst others. She is currently working on a novel, and is represented by Lisa Baker at Aitken Alexander. She founded Devotion in 2020.  About Stevie Stevie Mackenzie-Smith is a writer across text and audio. Her work explores how we live and work, pleasure and time. She’s writing a book about the nature of work; it’s a personal interrogation of jobs, leisure, her childhood in a caravan in 1990s Somerset and artists performing capitalist refusal. She is the co-creator of Layers, a podcast of personal stories about clothing, made with Ana Kinsella and Lucy Dearlove from 2017-18. She writes a monthly newsletter shared through the post and lives in Norwich, UK.