Two–Day Poetry Workshop from 26 to 27 March

Two–Day Poetry Workshop

Saturday, 26 March and Sunday, 27 March 2011

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA), in association with British Council, Bangalore, is pleased to announce a two-day poetry workshop which will be conducted by Sampurna Chattarji.

In this workshop we will look at questions of form, craft, tone, voice, detail, specificity, point of view and style, through the eyes of that disobedient and difficult animal – the rewrite.

In the process, we will look at tradition and continuity, anxiety and influence, theme and variation, homage and irreverence.

We will look at reading and rereading, judging and misjudging, and we will attempt to address the issue of what makes a good poem.

Venue: British Library, Prestige Takt, 23 Kasturba Road Cross (Opp: Visvesvaraiah Industrial & Technological Museum), Bangalore

Dates: Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 March 2011

Time: 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., both days.

Fee: Rs 1800, inclusive of lunch, tea/coffee and refreshments

Note to applicants (between 18 and 35 years):

Since the workshop will have not more than 12 participants, we will have to necessarily screen applicants. Please email ONE ‘finished’ poem to tfaindia84@gmail.com by March 10 at the latest to help Sampurna choose the participants. Once you are selected, you can send in your cheque for Rs 1800 made out to Toto Funds the Arts, at H-301, Adarsh Gardens, 47^th Cross, 8^th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore 560082.

Those who are chosen must bring with them, to the workshop, ONE ‘finished’ poem (either the one they had sent earlier or a new one) and ONE poem in progress.

About the facilitator:

SAMPURNA CHATTARJI is a poet, novelist and translator with eight books to her credit. Her debut poetry collection, Sight May Strike You Blind, published by the Sahitya Akademi in 2007 was reprinted in 2008. Sampurna’s poetry has appeared in Indian and international journals such as The Little Magazine, New Quest, Chandrabhaga, Indian Literature (India); Stand Magazine, Wasafiri (UK); Drunken Boat, The Literary Review (USA); Wespennest (Germany), Interlitq (Argentina), Carapace (South Africa) and has been anthologized in 60 Indian Poets (Penguin); Both Sides of The Sky (NBT); We Speak in Changing Languages (Sahitya Akademi); Interior Decoration: poems by 54 women from 10 languages (Women Unlimited); Imagining Ourselves (IMOW, San Francisco); Fulcrum (Fulcrum Poetry Press, US) and The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe, UK). Her translation of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray was reissued in 2008 as a Puffin Classic titled Wordygurdyboom! She has also translated the Bengali poet Joy Goswami. Sampurna has authored several books for young people, including The Fried Frog and Other Funny Freaky Foodie Feisty Poems (Scholastic 2009). Her first novel, Rupture, was published by HarperCollins in 2009 and her second poetry book, Absent Muses, by Poetrywala in 2010. Her second novel, The Land of the Well, will be published in 2011 by HarperCollins.

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