Creative Writing and History Workshops

I’ve run workshops for the Perth Festival, the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Sonic Poetry Festival, Western Australia Poets Inc., as a former lecturer in History and Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia, as well as for various schools, writing and community groups.

My workshops are fun, reflective, and generative, with lots of opportunities for focused writing and experimentation. Drawing on my background as a critical historian and poet, participants are introduced to new writing, ideas, and (hi)stories to awaken our imaginations and curiosities.

Open to writers of all genres and levels, these writing workshops are designed to enrich both those looking to forge more time for creativity in their life, and those with a project underway. Join a workshop! Be informed, inspired and energised while releasing your words and stories onto the page and into the world.

Stories of Stone

details coming soon!

Writing with Water

This workshop invites you to connect with water – in your body, in places around you, and in history. Together, we wade into and beyond water’s powerful metaphors. You will finish the workshop feeling more connected to the place where you live, and to the power that flows and returns through your words.

Where Poetry Meets History

In this walking poetry workshop, we open our imaginations to the visible and secreted stories that live in the urban landscape. In connecting with a city’s layered, fragmented, cacophonous history, how might we come into a new relationship our own (hi)stories? What surprising poems and poetic knowledges grow in and beyond an urban street grid?

Decolonial Poetics

In this reflective workshop, we practice a decolonial poetics, mindful of the ways poetry can variously support colonialism and resist it. Prompts engage with questions of standpoint, form, and un/intelligibility. Who and where do our poems speak for? How can we use poetry to write back to colonialism? How can poetry be a form for and of liberation?

Reviews

‘Nadia’s inspiring prompts allowed me to write freely in this excellent workshop, [Writing with Water]. Her intuitive and creative approach to the writing process was extremely valuable for my creative practice, not to mention the inspiration and words that continue to flow from this... beautiful opportunity.

-       Katrina

‘I enjoyed... 'Where Poetry Meets History' so much. Nadia is a wonderful guide who generously shares her deep historical knowledge, poetic eye and ear, passion for history and poetry, and cultural sensitivity. This tour reconnected me to my creative practice, reminded me of the significance of place and walking to my writing, and inspired an idea for a new poem. Importantly, it transformed the city I live... into a place rich with history, stories and poetic potential.’ 

-       Simone

‘Nadia’s depth of knowledge and passion make this workshop a joy. I have so many ideas perculating.’ 

-       Laura

‘A careful space that acknowledged pain... We looked after each other as we spoke of our positionality and response as settlers on stolen land.’ 

-       Lisa