Writing Home: A Magical Realism Poetry Workshop

Writing truthfully about where you’re from and what shaped you isn’t always about accuracy.

Poetry, in particular, isn’t for writing about your experience but for making your writing the experience. In this workshop with the Artistic Director of Bankstown Poetry Slam Bilal Hafda, participants compose poetry that chases the magic of what makes a place or a moment stick in our memory and form our being.

Borrowing from the rich history of extraordinary storytelling that exists in cultures as old as the world, Bilal leads you through the conventions of magical realism, including how to break them, taking inspiration from contemporary writers and tapping into the immaterial world of heartbreak, hope, hurt and healing at the core of what home means.

With Bilal, learn how to craft a poem from the place, or places, that have made you.