Adam Wyeth
- County
- Dublin
- Genre
- Poet, Children's Writer
- Sessions
- Discussion with Writer, Creative Writing Workshop, Master Class
- Age Group
- 5 - 6, 7 - 10, 11-15, 16 - 18
- Level
- Primary, Post Primary
- Languages
- Works in English ONLY
- Availability
- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Mornings, Afternoons - Travel
- Yes
Publications/Repertoire/Productions & Background Experience
ADAM WYETH is an award-winning poet, playwright and essayist who lives in Dublin. He has three books published. His critically acclaimed debut collection, Silent Music (2011) was Highly Commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. Adam’s second book, The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic Mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry (2013) contains poems from Ireland’s leading poets followed by sharp essays that unpack each poem and explore its Celtic mythological references. Adam’s third book and second poetry collection The Art of Dying was published with Salmon in November 2016 and was named as an Irish Times Book of the Year. Adam’s poetry has won and been commended in many international competitions, including The Bridport Poetry Prize, The Arvon Poetry Prize and The Ballymaloe Poetry Prize. His work appears in several anthologies including The Forward Prize Anthology (2012 Faber), The Best of Irish Poetry (Southword 2010) and The Arvon 25th Anniversary Anthology. Adam is also selected poet for the 2016 Poetry Ireland Review's Rising Generation of poets. Recently an excerpt from a new poem was selected for the Wild Atlantic Way Passport. The Irish Writers Centre has also selected him for this year's Cill Rialaig writer-in-residency.
Adam’s first play Hang Up, produced by Broken Crow (2013), has been staged at many festivals, including the Electric Picnic, Home Festival, Cork and the Galway Theatre festival. It was adapted into a film in 2014 and premiered at Cork's International Film festival and was staged last year in Berlin alongside his fourth play, Apartment Block (Broken Teapot Productions) who presented 'An Evening of Adam Wyeth' at Theaterforum Kreuzberg. His third play, Lifedeath was showcased at the Triskel Arts Centre mini-festival of new work in December 2013 and was named by the Irish Examiner as the play of the festival. It was also presented at University College Cork's Theatre Festival 2014 and Engage Arts festival, Bandon 2014. In 2013 Wyeth was commissioned by Cyclone Rep. to write The Poetry Sessions, a full-length play covering all the poets on the Leaving cert syllabus, which had a nationwide tour; co-written with Paula McGlinchey. He is co-founder with McGlinchey of Why on Earth Productions, which had its first production of solo-play Yoga For Beginners as part of the Scene & Heard work in development Festival at Smock Alley, 2016. Adam has over twelve years experience as a creative writing facilitator and works as a professional reader and editor at adamwyeth.com, Fishpublishing.com and the Bigsmokewritingfactory.com. Adam is running many creative workshops in 2017 including the Mythic Imagination week long creative writing at Anam Cara, Co. Cork and a sailing retreat creative writing holiday around Spain with Kingfisher Sailing. See adamwyeth.com for further details.
Session Details
In my workshops I often like to get the children up out of their seats. I often start with warm-up games to get the kids thinking and moving immediately. This helps loosen them up and create a sense of fun. Often I play a game which enables me to get to know their names.
I like to introduce new poems to children and often begin with my own children’s poem which I read from the award-winning O’Brien Press anthology Something Beginning with P – which many of the children are familiar with.
I then set a group or individual exercise often using the poem as a model. I introduce all sorts of poetry and writing techniques to children during my workshops. I often encourage the children to simply become aware of all their individual senses through various games. One of my favourite games, which always has great results, is the Personification Poem Exercise. It entails handing them various household objects which they choose from a bag with their eyes closed. They first explore the object through the sense of touch, sound and smell for a couple of minutes – keeping their eyes closed – just being aware of what they are thinking. The children then open their eyes and note down everything that went through their minds and afterwards include the sense of sight. I then read them a personification poem where an object is speaking with a human voice. I then get the children to imagine a day in the life – speaking from the object's point of view, their notes help create their story and usually determine emotions like whether they are happy or sad, etc...
After each session the children come away with a wider appreciation of poetry and also with the ability to write their own work. I finish the session with the children reading out their pieces to the class and then we close with a game.
Availability Details
I am always available unless involved in another project.
- Telephone
- 023-8849096/ 086-3166300
- .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
- Website
- http://www.adamwyeth.com/index.html