Reading & Writing Poetry: 'Chance Procedures'

Guided by John Cage’s Themes and Variations (1982) this 12-week course has been designed for those with some experience of reading and writing poetry.

In addition to developing critical discourse, participants will explore improvisation and indeterminacy as tactics in the making of their poetry.

Participants will also explore, by way of close reading and their own experiment, the influence of Dada and Zen Buddhism on Cage’s work and the ways in which his purpose was to find ‘a way of writing which though coming from ideas is not about them, or is not about ideas but produces them.’

About the tutor

Natasha Cuddington was born in Saskatchewan, Canada and holds a BA in Creative Writing and English Literature and an MA in Irish Studies. A writing facilitator with experience in a variety of contexts, her translations, poetry, essays and reviews have appeared variously on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 2017, she was announced as the recipient of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary. Her début poetry collection, Each of us (our chronic alphabets) was published by Arlen House (2018). With Ruth Carr, she co-edited Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women Writers Address Domestic Violence and Abuse (Arlen House, 2020).