Kim Fahner lives, writes, and teaches in Sudbury, Ontario. Her first novel, The Donoghue Girl, is being released in September 2024, and her sixth book of poems, The Pollination Field, will be published by Turnstone Press in Spring 2025. Kim was the fourth poet laureate of the City of Greater Sudbury (2016-18) and was the first woman appointed to the role. She is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada (2023-25), a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Kim 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.
