We were delighted to welcome Mona Arshi, poet, former human rights lawyer and current St Augustine’s Priory parent, to St Augustine’s Priory on Wednesday 22nd March to run a poetry workshop. Here, Mr Elder of the English Department and Zara Al-Naher of Lower V tell us more:
“One of the strengths of the English Department at St Augustine’s Priory is the poetry it helps students produce. For several years we have run workshops with professional poets where students have had the opportunity to work in a sustained way on their writing with expert guidance. This year we ran four sessions for students in Lower V and Upper V and again students have produced excellent work that we look forward to sharing with you. The poets who kindly gave their time and insight this year were Alexia Kirov (a former student who scored full marks in her Creative Writing A Level last year and who is now studying English at Bristol university) and Mona Arshi, a well established poet who has won various awards and is currently a judge on the Forward Prize panel” – Mr Elder
“Each Wednesday in March, a small group of students attended a poetry workshop with our very own Alexia Kirov and the lovely Mona Arshi. In every session we explored other poets’ work and took take part in writing exercises relating to the poems that we had read. During the week, each of us would work on our individual poems and share them in the next session. Although many of us were quite timid during the first few sessions, we became more comfortable with sharing our work, making comments and accepting constructive criticism. It was a wonderful experience, and I really loved hearing everybody’s poems and ideas. I feel that the poetry workshops truly encouraged the improvement of my own poetry writing as well as my analytical skills” – Zara Al-Naher, Lower V A
Categories: Senior Whole School
