“Nguyen’s work is a poetics insistent on fragmentation and rupture as a mode of thinking and being in the world–one where, paradoxically, the very notion of fragmentation is, in itself, a whole. Her poems remind us that meaning, as we understand it, does not have to adhere to standard conventions of syntax–thereby faithfully echoing the most pervasive and perennial human emotions of loss, displacement, serration and, perhaps most vital of all, a necessary sense of wonder and joy before the world. Her work is rich with the permission-giving power of alternative thinking and feeling–and is vital for anyone who cares about language and its possibilities.”
— Ocean Vuong
Tarot Maximus with Hoa Nguyen: A Weekend Intensive
Dear Poetry Community,
Over the years, people have asked me if I would ever offer a tarot class. Others equally have inquired as to when I might teach with Charles Olson’s Maximus again. Well, I am excited to announce Tarot Maximus, a new workshop, finally. This will be an instructional weekend intensive where I will share my 20+ years of study on the tarot and use tarot to select, read, and lead us through generative writing prompts inspired by The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson. Hosted by KFB, on Zoom. Please follow the link for more information. I’d be so happy if you could join or dropped a note hello.
Yours,
Hoa
PS: What do you think of the spread I drew about this workshop, shown above on my copy of The Maximus Poems? They appeared in this order: Eight of Swords, Eight of Wands, The Emperor, The Empress.
TAROT MAXIMUS WITH POET HOA NGUYEN
SATURDAY MARCH 12 & SUNDAY MARCH 13
MORNING 10-Noon | AFTERNOON 4-6 (Toronto EST)
REGISTER HERE CLOSED
Hosted by KFB
Pictured above: Cards and pouch that once belonged to Charles Olson, image by Jonathan Skinner.
Born in the Mekong Delta, Hoa Nguyen was raised and educated in the United States and has lived in Canada since 2011. Hoa has had the privilege to work and teach all over the United States and Canada, and share her unique perspective through her poetry. She is the author of several books including As Long As Trees Last, Red Juice: Poems 1998-2008, and Violet Energy Ingots which received a 2017 Griffin Prize nomination. Her fifth book of poems, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure was named a finalist for a National Book Award for Poetry and the Governor General’s Literary Award and has garnered additional support from Publishers Weekly, The Poetry Foundation, Ms Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her writing has been promoted by such outlets as Granta, PEN American Center, CBC Books, Boston Review, The Best Canadian Poetry series, Poetry, The Walrus, and Pleiades. In 2019, she was nominated for a Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a prestigious international literary award often compared with the Nobel Prize in Literature.
knife | fork | book 