Events & Workshops

Dear Guild members and friends in writing,

As you know, reading the work of other writers is an effective and beautiful prompt that can stimulate new writing of our own – as prose, poetry, songs, spoken word, or other forms.

Every working day during the month of April, I will be emailing Prompts – in this case, pairs of lines, or couplets, written by Saskatchewan poets – to interested members of the Guild. To receive these daily Prompts from me in your inbox, please register with the Guild.

My hope is that these Prompts will ignite new writing across the province.

April is National Poetry Month, and this year’s theme is “Weather”, a topic that always resonates with hardy Saskatchewan residents, especially here and now as we struggle with climate change in a place where the weather has always been extreme. Sometimes snow or rain or lightning is just exactly what it is, but the weather also makes for marvellous metaphor, subtext, or background for a human story. You may find this theme useful or inspiring as you write new work in response to the Prompts.

This Project is not just for poets. Even if you don’t view yourself as a poet, I hope the work of these fine Saskatchewan writers will stimulate your literary interest and lead to your own new writing. (Most of my poems begin as prose, then I see in their unbroken lines the possibilities of pantoums and palindromes, sonnets and sestinas, ghazals and free verse.)

One of the added benefits of the Poetry Prompt Project will be to possibly re-acquaint you with the work of old friends, and to introduce you to the writing of emerging writers you perhaps have yet to meet. At this moment, stacks and stacks of books by Saskatchewan poets are congregating on my desk and floor and tabletop, each book waving colourful flags, each book filled with lines and pages of note. “Read me, read me!” they are whispering. I hope you find them in your bookstore or library or on your own shelves and read in their entirety after the Prompts Project concludes!

Again, to participate, please register with the Guild below.

I wish you good reading and writing, and I hope to hear from you in the months to come about your writing in response to the Prompts.

dee

Saskatchewan Poet Laureate

Writers registered for the Poetry Prompt Project will receive their first prompt within 1-3 business days. If you not receive these prompt emails, please speak to SWG staff at programs@skwriter.com.

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