Creative Workshops 2008
March Writing Newsletter
please respond to mweb address not
gmail.
Have you found a space, that empty
space, which should surround you when you write? Into that space, which is like a form of
listening, of attention, will come the words.
(Doris Lessing’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech
Jan 2008)
Dear writer
This month I’m featuring part of
Doris Lessing’s Nobel prize speech.
The storyteller is deep inside every
one of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is
ravaged by war, by the horrors that we all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose
floods wash through our cities, the seas rise. But the storyteller will be
there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us -for good
and for ill. It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt,
even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is
our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative.
The empty space Lessing calls for is
perhaps that pause between breathing…the no breath, that expanding moment when
we fall down the rabbit hole into our story. A slowing down of linear time so
we can slip though that gap into the field that Rumi writes of… where reader
and writer gather… “Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a
field. I’ll meet you there.”
Dorian’s Workshops
Pretoria In the Belly of the
Wale: words, images, stories and
healing
5-6 April
I love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it
throws in a load of fish. (Bernard Malamud)
This workshop (rich in metaphors) aims to enrich the personal
experience and work of any one involved in the healing professions. It
considers how attention to this mytho-poetic world creates a more abundant life
and opens us to healing.
Workshop run in conjunction with South African Society of
Clinical Hypnosis (SASCH)
(contact Carmen sasch
@ianopperman.com 011
622 1598 086 671 8552)
Ixopo
Once upon a Zen: Story-telling, Story-listening and Meditation
25-28 April – story telling at Buddhist
Retreat Centre with Bob Commin. brcixopo@futurenet.co.za
039 834 1863
Listen with the deep ear in your
chest (Rumi)
In sharing tales from Zen and other traditions, we rediscover the lost
art of story-telling and story-listening. We explore our creativity and
imagination. Activities include how to: structure and create narratives;
meditate on stories; use stories in teaching; tell them to
children in need; listen to other people's stories; embrace
the energy of stories in our own lives.
Squinting down the months …
Egoli
Finding
Meaning though Words, Poems, Stories, Being
We discover meaning by creating a work or doing
a deed, by experiencing… goodness, truth and beauty … nature and culture or by
encountering someone and lastly, by the attitude we take toward unavoidable
suffering. (Viktor Frankl)
Through Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer I will be facilitating
workshops and offering interactive speaking engagements. The theme? How do we
respond creatively to the seasons of our lives in the context of Frankal’s work
on stress and suffering? Please contact Coral Wilder coralw@telkomsa.net 011 622-8793
083 450-9148
Franschhoek Literary Festival: Exchanging Energies: Writing your Book R190
Sun 18 May 2008 09.30 – 13.00 (change in date)
This workshop is about writing that
book that has been hiding inside you for too long. Writing is about a
conversation with yourself and with others. An exchange of energies. Writing is a
skill not talent. In
the course you will breathe life into the words and engage a reader while
allowing creative space.
Sun 15 June 2 hour mid day slot CCC Cape Town International Book
Fair no cost
I have learned that stories are powerful. You can hide
the positive in your heart and take it out when you are scared or
broken-hearted. Stories give you a way of talking about your problems. (a
caregiver)
Stories feed the heart, mind and
spirit. This talk focuses on how to use
writing, story-telling, symbols and creative modalities to tell and elicit
stories.
Hogsback East Cape– Writing, Reflecting, Being.
Mon 24 – Fri 28 Nov
Join East Cape poets Cathal Lagan and
Brain Walter and
Other story telling/ writing activities for organisations
Upington and
East London 16-18 April - East Cape Dept of
Education – training teachers so they can in turn teach the children under
their care to writer their stories around HIV/AIDS
Olso Stories
and leadership in Norway Oct/Nov
What would you like to see on the
writing-story-being calendar? Speak Speak
Mentoring
…through the one-on-one mentoring I
offer, aspirants and writers from
southern Africa,
5-
Email Courses
there are 4 on offer…some folks respond
to structure, assignments and seek
writing companions… join writes from the great anywhere…
Write Write Write: Writers’ Development: Email
Course (WWW)
Want to craft stories? Peter Merrington , writing coach, former Prof of
English at UWC,
has joined our Creative Workshop team. He will facilitate Write Write Write (www.petermerrington.co.za.) based on
my book The Writer’s Voice. Next course June 08. Contact me for detailed
flyer.
Poem Poem Poem (PPP) Making Poetry (Dorian/ Bob Commin
)
Seven poets are apoeting. This month they read and converse around
poems that move them. Here is Tricia
Heriz-Smith’s response to Derek
Walcott’s “Love after Love” which she sees as a ‘door’ poem. “You will love
again the stranger who was yourself”. How many times have I opened that door to
be surprised by myself? Next course June 08.
The
Poet’s Voice (PVC) Advanced Writing Course (Dorian/Bob Commin)
The poetry journal is essential part
of the process as apprentices master the trade…. Here is part of Sue
Gow’s journal entry in response to Galway Kinnell’s “ Saint Francis and the
Sow.”
Those first 3 lines – oh to find a
beginning like that. “The bud/ stands for all things/even for those things that
don’t flower.” He reminds me of DH Lawrence? Perhaps the earthiness of this
poem and the way the words and lines run… “and the sow began remembering all down
her thick length from the earthen snout all the way.” Like “the snake came to my water trough?
Poetry
for Publication (PFP)
Bob and I guide you in writing and selecting your poems for
a solo self publication. Anne-Marie Moore is compiling a collection, Grace note moments Preludes and Poems.
I stepped over an amber flower
saw the perfect number
five
and a spiral
a golden mean
Two
Books a coming (repeat info)
I’ve been a’writing away. The
Halo and the Noose, the Power of story-telling and story listen in Business
Life with Graham Williams will be out during the first quarter. We run
corporate story workshops based on our book. (look at my site for details) The Achilles Heal, The Healing
Art and Craft of Poetry with Bob
Commin will be out later in the year.
Workshops/Literary
Events with other Folk
Bob
Commin (poet,
creativity coach , storyteller and pastor) runs poetry courses/events in the
Southern Suburbs (
Come, come whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper
Lover of leaving, It doesn't matter (Rumi)
Working with the Artist’s Way Join this creative project on Tuesday afternoons from 16.00 -18.00
and rediscover and nurture your own
creativity. Fish Hoek
Peter Merrington (like me,
a resigned Professor of English literature) is running small group adventures in creativity in his garden
library in Plumstead/Constantia in the
peter@merrington.co.za His first book of fiction, Zebra Crossing: Tales
from the Shaman’s Record, (Jacana
Press) is due out in 2008.
Writer-sites and News
Prize Winner. Congratulations
to Betty Coomer and to Elma Pollard who mentored her. In her seventies, Betty
shared first prize for her first novel in an Afrikanerbond compet- ition. She
rewrote her historical novel (about SWA) four times. In her acceptance speech,
she praised the quality of Elma’s guidance.
We attended the Paarl ceremony to celebrate her success.
Mandy Lebides’ www.
writescape.com is alive and well. Mandy is a great motivator.
(Thanks to Erna Buber-de Villiers who handles both Mandy and my
sites. (zakerna@cyberserv.co.za)
Source new opportunities every month. Check out Lee Cahill’s www.sabookworm.com Thanks you
Lee for a site that informs and supports writers. This is writer good news.
Wordsetc A South African Literary Journal Loosely based on the
idea of The New Yorker, this is a new literary journal to look out for.
Writers need to read as part of self-tutorship. I suggest you
subscribe to New Contrast (poetry and prose) – 4 copies per annum for
R210. Hugh Hodge, the editor is doing a fine job for writers. Thank you
Hugh. newcontrasted@gmail.com
May you find that writing space.
Storyian
PS Thank you to all those who circulate this letter.
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com