May 2022 Netanya Residential Workshop

Sadly, a few people had to cancel last-minute for medical reasons, including testing positive for Covid. But on May 25th the remaining 23 poets gathered to celebrate poetry and friendship in beautiful surroundings.

There were four presentations arranged into three sessions, plus an evening panel session. Each presentation was followed by a writing exercise and time for participants to read the poems written during the exercise period.

• After arrival and check-in in the early afternoon, we opened with a presentation by Judy Koren on “Rhyme and How to Jazz it Up” – covering  classic rhyme and the various forms of “slant” or “subtle” rhyme (also called near-rhyme) bringing it up to date.
  
  
• In the evening after dinner, there was an animated panel presentation and discussion on the subject of “Getting Published,” covering publication of poems in literary magazines and of collections via Amazon. Panelists were Judy Koren and Eli Ben-Joseph on the subject of magazines, and Yochanan Zaqantov on the subject of book publishing.
  
  
• The next morning, in the first workshop session of that day, we enjoyed two presentations: Yochanan Zaqantov on Japanese poetic forms, and Elana Dorfman on Imagist poetry.
  
  
• Pesach Rotem, our current Secretary and humorous poet par excellence, rounded off the workshop with a session on humor in poetry.

This workshop received rave reviews in the follow-up evaluation, which once again was organized by our indefatigable membership coordinator, Yochanan Zaqantov. Many thanks to the presenters, to Yochanan for organizing the feedback, to Susan Olsburgh for handling all the negotiation with the hotel, and to our workshop coordinator, Elana Dorfman, for getting it all together.

As usual for workshops held in-person, we produced a chapbook of edited versions of the poems written during the workshop, and sent it to all participants. Extra copies are available at the nominal price of 20 NIS plus 5 NIS for postage. To order copies directly from this website, via PayPal, click the button below:

If you don’t see that button, click this link: PayPal.me/VoicesIsrael

You will be asked to log in to your PayPal account and then fill in the amount to send Voices Israel and a note saying what the payment is for. Please also send an email to whoever is distributing them  (currently, our President Judy Koren: president.voices@gmail.com) giving your current postal address.

A few photos of the event:

Our venue, the King Solomon Hotel, and its surroundings – a palm-rich promenade down to the Mediterranean Sea.

A group photo of the participants, and a photo from one of the presentations: from left to right: Elana Dorfman, workshop organizer; Judy Koren, and Yochanan Zaqantov.