Poetry and Dementia
Friday 27 February – Sunday 1 March
Tutors: Karen Hayes and John Killick
Fee: £275 (single room) / £220 (shared room)
This course is a taster of what is involved in embarking on poetry work with people with dementia. It aims to demonstrate the considerable potential in this area, as well as covering some of the problems that could be encountered. It includes consideration of the characteristics of dementia as they affect communication, truth telling, editing, ownership of material, collaboration with staff, and mentoring. Both tutors are widely experienced in the work with many publications on the subject to their credit. The course will use sound recordings and video material to illustrate aspects of the subject.
The course will take place at Tŷ Newydd Writers’ Centre in Llanystumdwy, North Wales. It’s a beautiful country house on the brink of Snowdonia National Park, just a ten-minute walk from the Cardigan Bay coastline.
John Killick has been writing poetry with people with dementia for twenty years, and six books of the poems have been published. He was a Research Fellow in communication through the arts at the Dementia Services Development Centre in the University of Stirling for six years. He is currently poet in residence at the Courtyard Centre for the Arts in Hereford. His most recent book is Playfulness and Dementia.
Karen Hayes is a poet and librettist, and works with people whose voices are unheard, particularly people with dementia, and has published three anthologies of poetry in the field, Only Just Orchid, The Edges of Everywhere and Try To Remember. She is currently a writer for Welsh National Opera’s Horizons project, working with adults with dementia and children with complex and multiple disabilities, to create a new libretto, musical score and film.
It is possible to pay the course fee in instalments. As well as this, the bursary scheme, available to people living in Gwynedd, can be applied for here.
If you have any questions, or if you are interested in attending, please contact Erin at erin@literaturewales.org or on 01766 522 811.
To book, or for more information, go to: www.literaturewales.org/poetry-and-dementia
