Kim Fahner lives, writes, and teaches in Sudbury, Ontario. Her newest book of poems is Emptying the Ocean (Frontenac House, Fall 2022). A new chapbook, Fault Lines and Shatter Cones, was published in Fall 2023 by Emergency Flash Mob Press. In Fall 2024, Kim's first novel, The Donoghue Girl, will be published by Latitude 46 Publishing. Kim was the fourth poet laureate of the City of Greater Sudbury (2016-18) and was the first woman appointed to the role. Kim is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the First Vice-Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada (2023-25), and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. She may be reached through her author website.
Eco poetry
Ekphrastic poetry
The two main creative writing workshops that I offer revolve around eco poetry and ekphrastic poetry. In both cases, I spend some time speaking about the genres, offering examples of poems that are reflective of that genre, and then I read some of my own work to give a sense of the variety of ways in which you can write about the environment or visual art. I also weave time into the workshop for individual writing, offering writers prompts to generate new poems. Then, we spend time discussing any questions that might have arisen during the workshop.
I feel most comfortable using ekphrastic poetry to work with school-aged emerging poets, using visual art as a prompt for the creation of new poems. In my ekphrastic poetry workshops, we look at specific pieces of art by Canadian artists and have conversations around how descriptive and poetic language works in poetry. Then, we create a class poem together. Prompts will be offered to the students so that they can continue exploring the genre after my visit to their classroom.
I also write as an eco poet, so I'm happy to offer a workshop that highlights the work of a few key eco poets and facilitate discussion around how poets can help to advocate for environmental protection and conservation. This would also include the creation of a poem, with prompts offered to the students so that they can continue exploring the genre after my visit to their classroom.
