Allan Cooper was unable to offer this session at WordsFall in October, so we've asked him to lead his session in December. Since the weather is mercurial at this time of year, we'll offer this workshop via Zoom.

In this two - hour workshop, Allan will read various poems about the natural world with commentary, from Thoreau through John Thompson and American poet Mary Oliver, just to give you a taste of what’s been done. For the second part, Allan will ask all of the participants to bring along their own natural object, or a personal object with which they feel a strong connection. He will then lead you through the three part writing process. Allan will also bring along an object which he has written about, and then read his poem, to help you feel more comfortable about the exercise. There will be lots of room for questions and discussions as well.

For the hard of hearing, the chat function can be utilized for questions, and captioning will be available. We can also make ASL interpretation available, although this must be requested by December 1.

If for some reason you register and then are unable to attend, we will be recording the session and you can view it with a zoom link afterward for a limited time.

About Allan Cooper: Allan has published nineteen collections of poetry, including Everything We've Loved Comes Back to Find Us (Gaspereau Press, 2017), Toward the Country of Light: New and Selected Poems (Pottersfield Press, 2018), Waiting for the Small Ship of Desire (Pottersfield Press, 2020), and The Face of Everything (Pottersfield Press, 2023). He has twice won the Alfred G. Bailey Award for poetry manuscript in the NB Writing Competition, and received The New Brunswick Book Awards Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize in 2017 and 2020. He is the founder of Owl's Head Press and has been the editor of the intermittently published literary journal Germination since 1982. Cooper is also a songwriter and performer. His recent musical projects include Rosedale and Songs for a Broken World. He divides his time between his ancestral home in Alma, New Brunswick, and Riverview.