Dining with the Self, Familial and Ghosts

In this workshop we’ll explore poems about food, and what they can show us of the self (think Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney, and Blackberrying by Sylvia Plath). We’ll also explore our unique relationship with food – however perhaps uncomfortable. How do we nourish or under-nourish ourselves when alone? How do we eat when not in company? Do we gobble our “girl dinner” without witness, in the grain of bad T.V light, from our laps? Or perhaps we make an occasion of dining alone – get out the best cutlery just because and sit at the table to quietly celebrate a centring of, or coming-back-to, the self. Is it simply protein quota, fuel?

We’ll explore the dinner table as a poetic space – populate it with family, friends, even ‘enemies’. What are the dining tables that remain in our memories, imagination, dreams; what meals, and who is around them?

Lastly, we’ll dine with ghosts, both personal and ‘famous’. We’ll seek guidance throughout from poets such as Victoria Kennefick, Safiya Sinclair, Jack Kerourac, and Sharon Olds.

Facilitator biography

Rachel Long’s debut collection, My Darling from the Lions (Picador, U.K, 2020 / Tin House, US, 2021) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, The Costa Book Award, The Rathbones Folio Prize, the Jhalak Prize Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour, and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. The US edition featured in the New York Times Book Review, and was named one of the 100 must-read books of 2021 by TIME. She is currently working on her second poetry collection.