WICE have asked me to run my successful poetry class again,
Writing Poetry – Craft and Inspiration
starting 30th September.
This will be a hybrid class – you can attend either in person or online. That way we can run it successfully despite Covid, strikes or bad weather. You can attend any or all of the classes online, whether it’s just that you’re outside Paris or it’s because you need to self-isolate.
Course description:
A poet needs both something to write about and skill in writing. We will focus on these two themes so important in strong poetry – finding inspiration and mastering elements of craft. Each week we will do some writing in class and a homework task will be set so that we can share what we’ve written the following week. Teaching will cover how to write stronger poetry and where to find sources of inspiration. All levels of experience welcome.
I’m confident the class will thrive as it has in previous years – developing a strong sense of mutual support and community around the writing and sharing of poetry.
Maximum of 7 participants.
Dates and times:
It will be 3.30pm – 5.30pm every Wednesday for 6 weeks.
- Sept 30th
- Oct 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
- Nov 4th
Fees: €195 euros + WICE membership fee of €25/30/50
Staying safe:
In the classroom we’ll wear masks and be 1m apart. Everyone will have their own desk and chair and surfaces will be wiped down. If anyone develops symptoms that could be Covid then they can still attend online. Similarly if they have been in close contact with someone contagious.
About the teacher:
David Barnes is a British poet who ran a weekly writers’ workshop at Shakespeare & Company for a decade and organises and runs the open mike poetry night SpokenWord Paris, now in its 15th year. He is the Editor in Chief of The Bastille literary magazine and was co-editor of Strangers in Paris – New Writing Inspired by the City of Light (2011, Tightrope Books) which included work by such writers as Alice Notley, Jorie Graham and John Berger. His poetry has been published in various magazines. He is a teacher and psychotherapist.
In August he was the featured poet at Literary Lavatory, Obejvak, Prague.
Signing up for the course:
Register online here
or contact WICE and give the course code or name:
WS301 Writing Poetry – Craft and Inspiration
WICE: Where Internationals Connect in English
www.wice-paris.org
Tel 01 45 66 75 50
10 rue Tiphaine, 75015 Paris
Cheers all,
David Barnes
Jeffrey Banks is poetically known as “Big Homey”. He’s worked with notable people such as the late Fred “Rerun” Berry of What’s Happening!, Stellar Award-Winning Gospel Singer Maurette Brown Clark, GRAMMY-Nominated Soul Singer and Television Star Syleena Johnson, 2000 Olympic Gold-Winning NBA Legend Allan Houston, New Jack City Actor & Singer Christopher Williams, Gospel Trailblazer Dr. Bobby Jones and others. He’s been featured in national media such as ESSENCE Magazine, Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, Radio-One Inc., the CBS Early Show and BLACK ENTERPRISE Magazine. Big Homey’s album, Exposed-The EP, is the poetic testimonial of the trials & victories of a Christian Believer. He’s had the opportunity to perform across the USA and has done numerous engagements on East Coast college campuses. He’s a nationally-recognized event planner who was named one of the “Top 40 under 40” American Meeting Planners of 2013 by Rejuvenate Magazine. He has been a grant writer since 2008 and has been awarded numerous grants. He was a 2018 finalist in Day Eight’s DC Poetry Project and is currently continuing a collaborative relationship with grants each party was awarded from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. He’s been published in short-run anthologies in conjunction with DC Public Libraries (2009) and the National Association for Poetry Therapy (2019). Most recently, he’s been a contributing writer to the online publication, DC Theatre Scene..
Jose Padua’s first full length book, A Short History of Monsters, was chosen by former poet laureate Billy Collins as the winner of the 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prize and is now out from the University of Arkansas Press. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in publications such as Bomb, Salon.com, Beloit Poetry Journal, Exquisite Corpse, Another Chicago Magazine, Unbearables, Crimes of the Beats, Up is Up, but So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, and others. He has written features and reviews for Salon, The Weeklings, NYPress, Washington City Paper, the Brooklyn Rail, and the New York Times, and has read his work at Lollapalooza, CBGBs, the Knitting Factory, the Public Theater, the Living Theater, the Nuyorican Poets’ Café, the St. Mark’s Poetry Project, and many other venues. He was a featured reader at the 2012 Split This Rock poetry festival and won the New Guard Review’s 2014 Knightville Poetry Prize. After spending the past ten years with his wife (the poet Heather L. Davis) and children in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, he and his family are back in his hometown, Washington DC. His poetry and essays appear regularly at Vox Populi (
SpokenWord Paris 