Dates and times 

(all Saturdays)

Liesl Jobson 

will be joined by:

Workshop theme

Should you write in free verse or keep it formal? Vonani Bila has a breadth of experience as poet, a literary publisher, an academic, a judge of the EU Sol Plaatje Poetry Competition, and is himself a competition winner! This makes him well placed to talk about creative choices for poetry in all languages. Decisions about form frequently challenge new poets. As it turns out, both modalities have their place!

To rhyme or not to rhyme? That is the question… sometimes rhyming poetry simply rings hollow. Other times it is the perfect point that sounds a well-tuned note. Xabiso Vili’s successful workshop on freewriting and editing for the AVBOB Poetry Project in 2022 was well received. As an internationally recognised slam poet, his observations and suggestions will help poets who need guidance on this topic.

Poetry is the prize! Finding fellow poets who value your work and encourage you is a huge benefit of participating in the AVBOB Poetry online workshop. Building a community of poets is just one of Jacques Coetzee’s significant achievements. Jacques has won the Ingrid Jonker (2022) and the AVBOB Poetry Prize in Afrikaans (2021). He hosts a weekly poetry open mic and is a friend to many poets. 

Jolyn Phillips delivered a well-attended and successful session on the pantoum in the last series of online workshops. This time, she talks about another form – confessional poetry. Jolyn welcomes high school poets who often turn to confessional poetry as their first entry point to creative writing. Confessional poetry has been practised by significant voices locally and internationally. Jolyn’s workshop shows you how to use this approach to create new and original work.

The importance of editing cannot be overstated… but how do you do this? Robert Berold contributed to a popular workshop for the AVBOB Poetry Project in 2022, and returns this year to help poets edit their work in real time. He has mentored many South African poets and published various new collections via Deep South Publishing.

“How do I go about publishing my poetry?” The AVBOB Poetry team gets asked this question more than any other … Editor, poet and judge for the Ingrid Jonker Prize, Helen Moffett, brings a wealth of experience with loads of practical tips to help poets think about how to do this to their best advantage – without getting ripped off by unscrupulous vanity publishers.