“Lunch with Robert Frost”

‘I came to Los Angeles with the idea of making it big in the entertainment business’ (I.Z., ‘One Thousand Dollars’; in Paul Auster, ed, True Tales of American Life.  London: Faber, 2001, p. 136).

The aim of this workshop is to focus on the idea of a new start.  Consider what it would be like to leave your current life—even your character—behind and go somewhere else to start again.  Try to assemble these alternatives as fully as you can, and think about the kind of phrasing and images that would do justice to your explorations:

  • Who would you be?

  • Where would you want to go?

  • What would that new life, that new place, fulfil in terms of your dreams or long-held wishes?

  • You could either write directly from your own feelings, or filter them through a persona that you have constructed especially for your poem, similar to a character in a story.

Dr. Michael Wyndham Thomas
MICHAEL W THOMAS is originally from Staffordshire, England, and lived in Canada for a number of years. He is a poet, fiction-writer, songwriter, musician and dramatist, with over twenty years’ experience of publication and involvement with creative writing. His work has appeared in Stand, Iron, Other Poetry, Staple, The Interpreter's House, The Swansea Review (all UK), as well as in Grain and Alive Magazine (Canada), Irish University Review (Dublin) and The Antioch Review (USA); and he is due to be published in Albania! He also reviews for Other Poetry and Irish Studies Review (UK). Michael was awarded first prize in the 1998 ‘Housman Society’ poetry competition, and has also gained recognition in the ‘Stand Magazine’ short fiction competition, the ‘Yorkshire Open’ competition, two ‘Poets Anonymous’ competitions and several others. He has recently written a novel, The Song of the Sun, which is due for publication; and his full-length play, Assumption Eve--a dramatization of 'the Miracle of St Wulfstan,' Worcester's patron saint--is to be performed as part of the Three Choirs’ Festival, Worcester, in August 2006. His latest poetry collection, Port Winston Mulberry, was published by Silver Age Books in 2005. Michael is hard at work on his next poetry collection which is due out in 2007. He has also been recording work for a 'Poetry Podcast' programme in the West Midlands, with an audience in Britain, Europe and the US..

Rosalind Brackenbury | Cricket Desmarais | Catherine Doty | Barry George | Lee Gurga | Richard Grusin

Bob Muens | Dr. Michael Wyndham Thomas | Charles Trumbull

Thursday Noon - 1:00 PM

Cost: $10

“A New Time, A New Place”
Saturday 9 AM - 11:30 AM

Robert Frost - the England and Key West Years: Learn about Frost's formative years as a poet in England and what drew him to Key West in his later life.

Cost includes box lunch from Small Chef at Large.