‘He wasn’t clever at all: he merely told / the unhappy Present to recite the Past / like a poetry lesson’ (‘In Memory of Sigmund Freud’, W.H. Auden).

Psychoanalysis and poetry have long been mutually fascinated. In this day-long event, poet Nuar Alsadir is interviewed by psychoanalyst Ken Robinson and reads her delicate, mysterious poems, while there is an opportunity to take part in a workshop led by the Scottish Poetry Library’s JL Williams on writing from the unconscious. 

Programme:

11.30-12.30 conversation between Nuar Alsadir about poetry and the unconscious
13.00-14.00 lunch
14.00-16.00 poetry workshop
16.00-17.00 tea/snacks
17.00-18.00 reading by Nuar Alsadir

Tickets

Full day ticket (includes lunch and snacks): £25/£20
Interview ticket only: £5/£4
Reading ticket only: £5/£4 

Available to buy from The Scottish Poetry Library website.

All tickets very limited so please book early.  

Presented in partnership with The Scottish Poetry Library and The Sutton Gallery.

About the readers

Nuar Alsadir is a poet, writer, and psychoanalyst. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Slate, Grand Street, Poetry London, and The Poetry Review; and a collection of her poems, More Shadow Than Bird, was published by Salt in 2012. She is fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and is on the faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Ken Robinson is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Newcastle upon Tyne, a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis at Northumbria University. Before training as a psychotherapist (in Scotland) and then as a psychoanalyst he taught English Literature and the History of Ideas in University and maintains an interest in the overlap between psychoanalysis, the arts and humanities. His book on Shakespeare’s tragedies is (at last) nearing completion.

JL Williams‘ first collection, Condition of Fire (Shearsman, 2011), was inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses and a journey to the Aeolian Islands.  Her second collection, Locust and Marlin (Shearsman, 2014), explores the idea of home and where we come from, and was shortlisted for the 2014 Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year Award.  Our Real Red Selves (Vagabond Poets), a triptych collection featuring Williams and two other Scottish poets, launched in June 2015.  She plays in the band Opul and is Programme Manager at the Scottish Poetry Library.  www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk

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