Events

1. Courses

Aquinas Academy (est 1945) College of Adult Education 

The Soul is a Lonely Hunter:
Mid Century American Short Stories

This course explores the preoccupations of four mid-20th century American short story writers: William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor and Ernest Hemingway. In particular we will read, examine and discuss the way these writers represent spiritual isolation, desire for redemption and hunger for true connection. These giants of American Literature hold in their cross hairs a landscape riven by uncertainty and estrangement. Longing spills out over these isolated and personal landscapes, suggesting that – despite the reiteration by characters and authors that their worlds are godless – there remains a hunger for something more than the physical, the literal, the material. As readers we come away from their stories inspired, shocked, bruised hearted but always and every time assured we are not alone in our own soul’s pursuit of its singular destination.  

Dr Elizabeth Guy (BA Dip Ed, Diploma in Art History, Masters, Hons., PhD in Poetry & Politics) has taught Literature and Language in high schools in NSW and WA as well as in UTS, Sydney University, University of Santiago Chile, University of South Pacific Fiji and the University of Stirling in Scotland. Her books The Alchemy of Poetry (nonfiction) and Take Ink & Weep (fiction) are under contract with Dreaming Big Publications (USA). She is currently finalising her third book Abandoned by God (fiction).

When: Wednesday 10am-12noon on February 3, 10, 17 & 24.

2. Interview

Award Winning Journalist and News Broadcaster Mark Reddie interviews Elizabeth Guy

Want to learn more about Elizabeth Guy and her new book, The Alchemy of Poetry? 

The interview of Elizabeth by award winning journalist, Mark Reddie, is now available!

Watch this interview on Elizabeth’s Youtube channel.

This interview explores the writing process, influences, publication and the value of poetry in today’s world.

Mark Reddie dives into The Alchemy of Poetry and asserts that this ‘would make a wonderful gift for someone who is interested in the world of art and poetry … history, politics, love, death, war, the sublime and so much more’. 

There are 160 poems in this anthology, with clear and succinct analysis. 

Elizabeth’s first book, The Alchemy of Poetry, is available now! It would make the perfect gift for someone who is interested in the world of art and poetry and history and politics and love and death and war and the sublime – because of the 160 poems selected in The Alchemy of Poetry succinctly and pitch-perfectly offer all this and so much more! Poetry makes sense of life; it offers us truths; it brings us unimagined worlds; and it liberates our pain. In moments of great joy or sadness, it is poetry which says the impossible, ensuring that the poignancy and loveliness of our humanity never passes into nothingness. Great Art belongs to everyone; thus, it is crucial that we continue the dialogue between ourselves and the poems. It is in this dialogue that we witness the alchemy of poetry: the way it transmutes from a language form and feature to a universal elixir.

What is the point of living if there is no Art? And poetry is the most concentrated of all Art. It is the oldest of all literary forms. Poetry offers ritual and cadence: sacrifice and secrets. It is audacious and disturbing but always – and this applies to all great poetry – yours. Mine. Ours.

So, we read poetry to face the truth. To stand there and dig in, to stumble over words we don’t get, to find a phrase that flicks a light on in our memory, to cat-paw over and over an image that was laid down long ago. Most of all, we read poetry to remind ourselves of what really matters: to witness the soaring light that tears up our small lives.