Explore & write: zuihitsu, in conversation with Sei Shōnagon

‘Explore & write: zuihitsu, in conversation with Sei Shōnagon’ is a new poetry workshop lead by Alex Corrin-Tachibana. This workshop will guide participants from Sei Shōnagon’s tenth century 枕草子, Makura no Sōshi: The Pillow Book, through to contemporary zuihitsu from around the world. There will be examples of zuihitsu from Japanese, Asian-American and British poets, including the author of ‘The Narrow Road to the Interior’, Kimiko Hahn and Manx poet Simon Maddrell.

Zuihitsu means ‘follow the brush’ and the form has been widely interpreted to include collage as well as words and recast in the form of a ‘disrupted zuihitsu’, by Karen McCarthy Woolf. It is this, and other traits of the form that the workshop will explore.

Alex Corrin-Tachibana will introduce traditional and modern examples of zuihitsu using a wide range of texts and audio materials so participants can excavate the form. There will be many opportunities for discussion and sharing.

Audience: Adult