T e s t i m o n i a l s
M A S T E R C L A S S
“Mark has such deep and extensive knowledge of poetry, its forms and history. He combines this with an incredible generosity and openness, alive to every participant in the group, to newness and endless possibility. His feedback is incisive, critically helpful and always kind. I came away from the Masterclass full to the brim with new ways to consider poetry, and a stack of reading recommendations and poetry to explore. Mark has given me new tools for crafting and shaping my own poetry and new language for how to better understand what I am trying to do with words. I highly recommend this Masterclass for anyone wanting to deepen and ground their poetry. Spend an intensive time generating new work and learn from and with a group of curious, smart and passionate poetry peers.”
––Emilie Collyer, April 2023
“Just want to say a massive thank you. Even though I was the toddler who stumbled into the university hall and took a seat - it was one of the best classes I've taken in years. You've opened up a whole new world of possibility and discipline. Your passion for poetry is inspiring. And your generosity with feedback was such a beautiful way to get the class thinking. I see birds everywhere now. I've even noticed how many filmmakers do a cutaway of a bird or birds traversing the sky in a dramatic moment. My favourite filmmaker Werner Herzog - once said that if you want to learn how to be a filmmaker - observe birds with a keen eye. So there's something in that. Do you know Werner Herzog's work? I highly recommend. Thank you for your time, your knowledge and your generosity. I hope to work with you again. And look forward to continuing to read your work.”
––Nadia Townsend, April 2023
“Thanks so much for the class Mark. I have learned heaps. I was a sceptic about forms when we started, but I’m convinced now - so thank you (and if nothing else, it helps my poetry stand out in a field of messy unshaped contemporary works). As I mentioned in the class on Sunday, I now have some tools to write longer forms of poetry - (if you do go ahead with The Nines anthology, I’d love to submit something). Thanks also for the close reading of my work. Your words of encouragement have been a great confidence boost. My testimonial follows. A wonderful engaging course working on the craft of poetry with one of Australia’s leading poets and teachers. What the Light Tells has taken my poetry practice to the next level.”
––Peter Frankis, April 2023
“Mark, no doubt you've heard this a thousand times, but gosh you're a gifted teacher. What you offer us all - the generosity and clarity of it - is hard to describe. I see why Adrienne F. phoned me last year and said Kate You Must Enrol In Mark's Course Immediately. Btw I read your first-page proof of your upcoming Griffith Review essay. I see how your extraordinary talent as a poet transfers so elegantly into an essay form. Those rhythms! That sharp mind! That heart! I am so looking forward to reading your full essay once it's out.”
––Kate Rossmanith, March 2023
“Mark’s generosity, poetic skill and attention to details in the broad subject matter and forms explored in What the Light Tells have reignited my love of poetry, improved my knowledge base and extended my writing practice. I’m much indebted to his inclusive, intimate approach and dedication in this masterclass, and recommend it to poets at all stages of their writing.”
––Tru Dowling, March 2023
“This course artfully blends an exploration of many forms of poetry with in-depth feedback about participants' poems. It was such a rich and rewarding experience, affirming and gently challenging. Mark is so generous with his time and I would recommend this to anyone at any level interested in developing their writing.”
—Ric Taylor, March 2022
“I have just completed Mark's wonderful online poetry masterclass What the Light Tells. It was one of the very best poetry courses I have taken. Mark, a brilliant teacher, is extremely knowledgeable, his preparation on the content and his related slides are thorough and deep. What is more, he is incredibly warm and generous—his personality is a delight. And, in his comments and edits on our poems, Mark takes great care in polishing each student's work to make it shine. With all of this richness, the zoom screen disappears. As participants from many different countries, we entered into a personal and intimate teaching space, as if we were in a real setting. I highly recommend this course as well as any other course Mark offers.
—Rona Shaffran, August 2020
"What a joy to explore the finer points of poetic form and speech music with Mark Tredinnick—he's an inspirational teacher. Highly recommended for the novice and experienced poet alike."
—Steve Armstrong, August 2020
“Mark’s teaching is always generous, erudite and enlivening. What the Light Tells will draw you irresistibly into the discipline of the lyric—in all its immensity and intimacy. I cannot praise this course enough. It has utterly transformed my approach to writing poetry, and will continue to do so, as I work with its animating ideas and exercises in poetic form.
—Annie Hunter, August 2020
“Anyone wanting to refine their poetry writing can do no better than to enrol in a Mark Tredinnick online course. Join other poets from here and overseas to learn from this internationally-acclaimed poet. He is patient and generous in his guidance. I loved doing his course so much, I’ll sign up for a mentorship. He is starting another course in November. Check out his website or Facebook page.”
—Di Bartok, August 2020
“I attended Mark's workshop as a first-time poetry student. it was a revelation. In the first half of each session, Mark presented a range of themes (themselves almost poetry) to stimulate our engagement with the art and craft of poem-making. In the second half of each session, we were encouraged (required?) to read our own works, experimenting with various forms (sonnet, haiku, sijo, quatrain etc). Mark had taken the time to analyse and refine each piece (with written feedback prepared before each session) in a tone that was both appreciative and improving. We read selections in class and had thoughtful (and encouraging) feedback from other students. The effect was inspiring and addictive. Mark's teaching is masterful—from the finest nuances of tone, to the simplest of advice (use a serif font, cut the adjectives, 'put a bird in it'). I loved it. And I am hungry for more.”
—Ian Colley, August 2020
“Mark is an incredibly talented and giving teacher. He has been instrumental in giving me the tools and confidence to pursue writing professionally and creatively. I recently took Mark's poetry masterclass, which was an inspiring, and taught me lot about the craft of poetry. As a beginner, I found it very helpful. This course is a fantastic opportunity, and I highly recommend Mark to anyone looking to further their writing practice!”
—Elizabeth Whitehead, May 2020
“I just finished Mark's What The Light Tells poetry masterclass. What a joyful, challenging, insightful, fascinating and productive six weeks! Mark was generous with his wisdom, and time, throughout. The course is a thorough treatment of poetic form, and provided me with many new perspectives on what poetry is and what makes it good. The live feedback sessions were immensely practical—Mark is highly skilled in identifying problem areas in a given piece of writing and suggesting remedies. The group dynamics invite you to develop critical skills towards styles other than your own. My own writing certainly took a leap forward as a result of attending this course. Highly recommended.”
—Daragh Byrne, May 2020
“Last night I finished the sixth and final week of a poetry masterclass with Mark. To study and learn with Mark is an incredible journey; it opens your eyes to the magic and power of poetry. So much knowledge was shared over the six 3-hour sessions—all of it designed to make class participants better readers and writers of poetry.
The masterclass was generous in the depth of content and the comprehensive reading lists provided. All of this exposed us to the sensitivities of poetic language and the many tools and truths behind different poetic forms. We had the opportunity to learn about many classical and modern forms, and to practise writing these each week after the lessons.
Mark was patient and very constructive in his feedback. Not only was each class inspirational and a great learning experience, but they were a lot of fun as well.
I would not hesitate to enrol in another class with Mark, and I thoroughly recommend him as someone who will change the way you see, appreciate, and write poetry.”
—David Terelinck, May 2020
“Mark Tredinnick’s masterclass takes a serious look at form in a non-confronting format. What the Light Tells is for the poet who wants to nourish their writing with the best possible ingredients, [to learn how to] make each word count. Speech music is a key concept in Mark ‘s understanding and teaching of poetry, and it is exactly how and what he will teach you. I got a lot out of these six weeks. This course will elevate anyone's work.”
—Ellen Shelley, May 2020
“I have just completed six weeks of the most fabulous Masterclass with Mark. He is generous with his time and energy and gave all of us so much to think about and practise with regard to form, beautiful language, metaphor and the like. Thank you, Mark, for the journey which has only just begun!”
—Kirsten Johnston, May 2020
“In Mark's words,"Poetry, like jazz, works best too late and in the dark." But I would add—if he allows me—and with a wise, thoughtful and kind teacher guiding you. I just finished What The Light Tells poetry masterclass, and it's been a challenging, meaningful and beautiful experience. It wasn't my first course with Mark, but it's difficult to get tired of his words, his insights and meticulous suggestions; always adding that extra 'something' that your piece needs. These six weeks meant a lot to me: I learnt and enjoyed it so much that I didn't want them to finish. English is not my first language and Mark gave me the confidence I needed to keep writing and improving. His masterclass provides the perfect balance between length, structure and content. I loved working through form and beats, while re-discovering myself through the delicate art of poetry. I will definitely attend another Mark's course. Highly recommended.”
—Noelia Ramon Llanos, May 2020
“With his wise and generous counsel, Mark has gifted me a pen and paper that won’t stop talking to each other. Although poetry has winked at me since I was a child, I’ve only ever flirted back. And now, after six weeks with Mark, I find myself dancing with form and speech music and opacity and oracle, and so much more. I have fallen in love with the process (the game of word play is such a delight); but also I am so much richer for having access to a medium that amplifies my voice on matters I truly care about and which allows me to participate in a universal conversation. Thank you, Mark.”
—Rebecca Kornmehl, August 2020
“As the result of your eloquent teaching, I'm already reading with a different brain and with the knowledge of why something has worked or why not: such a gift in itself, let alone my new insights into all the elements, particularly rhythm, that make the whole.
Your ability to give each of your students’ work such thoughtful consideration is a gift that is rare, and I feel privileged to have been part of the masterclass.
Of all your many gifts, the one that resonated most deeply for me was forgiveness. I had many aha moments, but that one illuminated a concept I think I've been looking for without knowing it.
I particularly savoured the lyricism of your writing and speaking about the craft of poetry: it felt like being immersed in one beautiful unfolding scroll poem over the six weeks.
Thank you so.”
—Jo Gardiner, August 2020
“I recently did this fantastic poetry course with Mark Tredinnick and a bunch of other fantastic poets. I learned so much about the music of language and the structure of poetry, and was encouraged to spread my wings and have a go at flying. Didn't always succeed, but was among very supportive company. Highly recommended.”
—Karen Viggers, August 2020
“For a writer in North America, Mark's class works perfectly. In the evening here I would join Mark in the next day's Australian morning, and it was a pleasure to see the sunlight streaming into his studio and the rooms of my Australian classmates. To hear the different accents together—American, Canadian, Australian—and the poetic voices of each made the sessions feel as though we were sharing something special. Everyone was welcome—younger or older, more experienced or less. Mark makes you feel heard and appreciated—there's no judgement, only encouragement of the best kind: sharp, clear suggestions for putting pressure on your words and genial support for making poetry in a beautiful, broken world.”
—Paul Bogard, August 2020
“This course artfully blends an exploration of many forms of poetry with in-depth feedback about participants' poems. It was such a rich and rewarding experience, affirming and gently challenging. Mark is so generous with his time and I would recommend this to anyone at any level interested in developing their writing.”
—Ric Taylor, March 2022
T E A C H E R
“Mark Tredinnick knows how to ‘ask more of language,’ and his teaching and workshopping are beautiful models of deft craft and thoughtful inquiry. A morning with this poet-teacher is like a walk in the forest with a guide who gently acquaints you with the names of things seen and unseen, and helps you find the ways you might speak these names yourself.”
—Julie Perrin, Masterclass of August 2020
“His poetry and teaching are both blessings to the world.”
—Tanya Guatam
“Mark's teaching is masterful—from the finest nuances of tone, to the simplest of advice (use a serif font, cut the adjectives, 'put a bird in it').”
—Ian Colley
"Mark is uniquely talented at articulating the otherwise-ineffable. He takes the art of lyrical writing and makes it achievable for his students. I find myself constantly referring back to his words of wisdom, those sparkling gems of insight. It is impossible to be in Mark's presence and not find oneself both informed and inspired."
—Sherre Strange, USyd Creative Nonfiction, 2019
“The care and close attention Mark pays to the surroundings and to the work of each student in a class is amazing. Taking a class with Mark is indeed a wonderful experience, and there is no other like it.”
––Carol A Stephen
“Mark is unlike any teacher I've had. [Taking his creative writing workshop was] the best decision I've ever made. He taught techniques and principles that have become instinctive in my writing. I went from not having written since high school to being a published writer. If you have the chance to learn from Mark, take it.”
––Caroline Wagner
“Mark Tredinnick is one of our greatest living poets, and a superb teacher.”
––Peter Bishop
“Mark is a sharp, focused, generous, insightful teacher with vast knowledge and great humour. Without Mark Tredinnick's teaching, I may never have dared step so fully into the poetry world.”
—Alison Whitelock
“Mark has a way of doing general critiques that suggests things, but makes the poet feel they have accomplished much already in their attempt. The poems got better as we went on. He had hours of things to say about what makes a good poem… Tredinnick’s breadth of knowledge, his familiarity with poetry from all over the world, is daunting, but broadening for us. He knows lines and poems, and has met many poets, as he has travelled read, and workshopped from China to Peru. I am replete. Stunned by Mark Tredinnick.”
—Claudia Radmore
“Mark’s engaged and compassionate guidance”
—Frances Boyle
“A remarkable weekend, Mark. You managed to make a space where really astonishing poems started emerging.”
—Maureen Scott Harris
“Mark Tredinnick is the best facilitator i have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. He listened to our poetry, paid attention to our comments and complaints, and remembered our work from one day to the next. ( ! ) Besides his sharp mind and impeccable sense of craft, he gave us homework—prompts—something i never warmed up to, until this master class with a master poet. Sharing the results of our ‘homework’ was useful, with moments that were simply thrilling. Succumbing to the energy his prompts generated, Mark even wrote a poem himself; when he read it aloud, i felt a marvelous flutter in the teacher-pupil shroud, a feeling that enriched the whole experience for me.”
—Allison Calvern
“…inspiring…”
—Jane Lennon
“Dear Mark,
Thank you for the week––and the treat I did not deserve.
The treat of course was being in the presence of one of our great literary artists while you do your best to explain how it all works.
And your best is so very very good.
I am as sure as I can be of anything that all of us felt more or less what I felt, but I will not presume to speak for anyone but myself.
Who knows what makes a great artist?—A fine enquiring intellect? A sensitivity of perception? A delicacy of emotion? A muscularity of opinion?
And so much more than that, including the relentless, ceaseless, indefatigable – now there’s a string of redundant adjectives––pursuit of perfection in what you seek to say and the lyrical way in which you say it.
And sometimes I can see the tip of a blade moving beneath that lyrical cloth.
Each time you invoke us to make it new—avoid cliché—you bring us closer to the truth of ourselves.
Write from a deep place—turn up at the page with all your faculties on high—or something like that. ( you will not my artful use of the long dash).
And I discover that to write I must find the truth of myself.
Which in my case is not particularly difficult – I mean how deep can a birdbath be?
But this last week has been a joy, Mark.
A joy because of you, and because of the extraordinarily gifted people who came.
A joy because of the way people responded to the gates you helped them open, the paths you helped them discover. Each time I attend one of your courses I collect some new trove of unexpected treasures. And this one has been richer than all the others—and the others have been rich.
There is no real way to explain it I guess—something to do perhaps with the unexpected numbers of people and the pleasure of their presence. Each time one of them left the room I felt a sense of loss.
It was a remarkable week Mark, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Fondest,
Peter
––Peter Bishop
“Along with the other students in the class, I found Mark generous in his advice and critiques—which came from a place of mastery and a life lived in the art of poetry.”
—Peter Ramm
M E N T O R
It is a privilege to work with Mark: he takes me to places I simply couldn’t arrive at on my own. It might, for example, be altering a word/s or punctuation; restructuring a sentence, or a paragraph, or a chapter; advising me about what to cut and what to add; suggesting when to say things more lyrically and when to state them more plainly; or helping me to plot out the manuscript. Also, usefully, he has a very broad general knowledge. Any criticism is pretty much painless because it is both constructive and delivered kindly, and always leads somewhere better. Essentially Mark combines a fine mind with a generous heart, and he is both analytical and emotionally resonant. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be mentored by.”
—Jane Lennon
“Through his deep appreciation of lyric poetry, Mark has taught me much about what I’ve been trying to do. In some ways, he knew my poems better than I did, saw their strengths, and their weaknesses—where and how I’d let them down. He challenged me to find the forms the poems wanted to inhabit, to listen more acutely to what they wanted to say, and how they wanted the saying done. His ability to spot a problem was surgical, his encouragement purposeful and constant. Over the course of this mentorship, my poetry has improved more than I could have imagined.”
—Kevin Smith
In many ways Mark’s poetry found its way into my life as I grew in the love of language and the beauty in a well-formed sentence. From his commission for the Red Room’s New Shoots Project and his exquisite collection Bluewren Cantos, to the copy of his Little Red Writing Book, which sits at my work desk, Mark was already speaking into my writing before I had the privilege of meeting him in one of his creative writing courses. Along with the other students in the class, I found him generous in his advice and critiques—which came from a place of mastery and a life lived in the art of poetry. Under the structure of a mentorship, my work has lifted phenomenally, more than I had thought it could. His patience and gentle guidance have helped me to grow a voice that I knew was always there but was lacking the form and rhythms to express with grace. One of the first lines of Mark’s poetry that I read “If you want heaven, start in mud” (Lotus Pond) resonates so much in the work of making a poem; in the earthy inspiration, in the drafting, in the refining process—in the tactile exchanges between life and the self. It has been these sorts of insights into my own poems and those of many great writers that have filled our sessions and continues to enrich our fellowship of words. I am forever grateful for Mark’s influence in my writing and the spirit in which he teaches.
—Peter Ramm
P O E T
“Just received a copy 'A Gathered Distance' and I have something to say in my own clumsy, grammatically careless, pretentious way: Your poetry, elegant in its complexities, exposes the multiplicity of worlds that can exist in an instance. The delicacy of its strands plays the reader gently and brings solace and meaning to their place in the moment. And all is connected through one persevering fragility, life, and the need to express its force to survive the medium of impermanence. Your poetry teaches that life is not us, or I, it is the tiniest grain of sand and farthest star; the cry, the giggle, the sigh of creation, the fire and ice of change and that stopping is death, and life is the gentle, sometimes violent, motion that defies it; and poetry, a beauty that does not own itself, is the courage that wrestles life’s indifference to joy and suffering, although life, and only life, is their cause and origin. Thank you.”
— Jeff Jalaco
“Mark is one of our greatest living poets, unpretentious, accessible, lyrical and profound. He is also a superb teacher of creative writing.”
––Peter Bishop
“Marked by flashes of great lyricism, Tredinnick’s “Red Tulips” is a brooding introspective poem where nature and human self-doubt meet. In an open-form style reminiscent of American Charles Wright, Tredinnick skilfully traces the vagaries and confusions of the individual psyche in the midst of so much everyday beauty.”
––Peter Boyle
“Appropriately for a poem about a river, this is a work completely at home in its own flow of language: its fluency is breathtaking, not least because it takes so many risks with syntax along the way. There is great originality of description here, a way of making the Australian landscape in which it is embedded flame and sing, and if it is, as it terms itself, ‘post pastoral’ (with mobile phones, and trees described as mobsters in grass skirts and black glasses) the sheer specific beauty of what’s displayed and contemplated in the poem resonates all the more powerfully for that. We carry our countries into the world with us and through it and sometimes out again is one of those lines that expresses an abiding truth so effectively it is effortlessly memorised. Smart, self-deprecating, fast, unpredictable, and fantastically observed – this was the outstanding winner.”
–– Sinéad Morrisey
W R I T E R
“What I admire so much about Fire Diary—beyond its (very uncool) delivery of wisdom into the ironic heart of contemporary poetry—is its personal vulnerability. For me, it’s a capacity, simultaneous with his geomorphological understanding, astute metrics and attention to imagistic detail, to love and cry on the page, to be embarrassed on the page… I sense a lack of fear behind the writing of these poems that perhaps, amongst other things, a musical ear and a private suffering can give you: it gives Mark access to his art, and a sense in it of him, living his own dedicated life, perhaps not his first life, and perhaps not even his second or third ("your new life is just your old life with a book in its hands," he writes)—but therefore a life he has made himself, a poetry he has chosen and laid himself open to, with the inspiration of the earth.”
–– Gregory Day
“Mark’s writing is transporting in its beauty and insights into humanity. He has remarkable gifts in both writing and teaching.”
––Amanda Pile
“I have recommended Mark's books, The Little Red Writing Book and The Little Green Grammar Book more times than I can count. When I first found them I had been writing for some time, but I would get to certain points and hit a wall, unable to find a way through. I had started a Bachelor of Writing at Uni SA and my lecturer had recommended the red book. I remember opening those first pages titled, Stepping Out: A short walk in a southern wood and feeling completely swept up in the imagery that came with the writing. I put it down several times to just take it in and see it in my mind.
From that point I did something I never do to books. I underlined, stuck sticky notes and highlighted. Page after page and section after section. I have gone on to write and be published and every single time that someone asks me where I find inspiration or who I turn to for guidance, I always refer them to The Little Red Writing Book. Thank you so much for writing it, Mark. It set me on the path and always helps me to find my way through the wood.”
––Susan Murphy Gallina
“Back in 2009, I was lumped with copywriting work which I had never done. I was terrified. I was never great with grammar. I didn't know how to compose a sentence. A colleague recommended I read The Little Red Wring Book and the Little Green Grammar Book. So I did. And all of a sudden I could write functional, clear sentences one after the other. And I could also write sentences that held cadence and flow, rhythm and melody. I hadn't realised this was a thing that could be learned - craft. The strange confidence I gained from these books led me to writing lyrical prose and poetry outside my nine-to-five. Within a short time I had a couple of pieces published in Best Australian Poems, 2012 and 2013. Nine years later I had a piece shortlisted alongside Mark's work in the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize, the richest national prize. I read Mark's placed poem and slowly made the connection between Mark Tredinnick the poet and Mark Tredinnick my teacher by correspondence. An uncanny delight and a strange full circle. I'd never have bothered pursuing writing professionally and vocationally - for function and lyric - if I hadn't chanced upon his books. This year I have my first collection of poetry (10 years after that dreaded copywriting work) through 5 Island Press - one of the finest publishers of poetry in Australia. 33 year old Darby is laughing hard at the thought of 43 year old Darby gaining so much pleasure from writing. Thank you Mark.”
––Darby Hudson
“A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post with the aim to review and recommend 5 or 6 of my favourite writing books. I ended up writing an essay-length endorsement of Mark's 'The Little Red Writing Book' instead, because I love it so much. It's one of the earliest books on writing I received, when I told my parents that I wanted to pursue creative writing seriously, and it is still one of the most beautifully written, and useful books that I own. It gives practical, honest, and poignant advice on writing and states its intention to "encourage richer and smarter writing" and "do something about bad language and its consequences". I often return to it when my writing feels stagnant and forced. It emphasises that “writing that’s any good sounds like someone talking well”, whether that writing is a note to a loved one, a novel, or a business proposal. It gives advice on grammar and punctuation, referring to Strunk and White several times, as well as many other masters of the craft, ranging from Aristotle, to Ursula Le Guin and Barry Lopez. It talks about taking care in your writing, and being aware of your writing, yet not self-conscious. It’s the sort of book that allows you to open any page at random and find the perfect quote on writing. Everything about this book is beautiful. Every sentence is carefully crafted. It tells a story and takes you with it. It takes its own advice.
That is exactly why it is my ugliest book. It is everything that I aspire to do in my own writing, and every time I pick it up, I re-read almost the whole book. The spine is crinkled and broken, and every page is covered in miscellaneous coffee-coloured stains of wear and tear and time, even though I don’t drink coffee. It smells old, though it was published only ten years ago. It’s a book that has adventured, and been wedged under all sorts of contraptions to hold it open at just the right page. I love it like my dog loves the teddy I gave her when she was a puppy; the teddy that used to have a bowtie and soft fur, and now has no eyes and one ear, and smells like it’s been carried around the garden in the rain. It’s so well-loved that I sometimes treat it not very well. It’s my parent book, or maybe my grandparent book, because it gives the best and wisest advice and yet I’m not quite ready to take all of its advice. I highly recommend it, and have had multiple lecturers recommend 'The Little Green Grammar Book' to me as well. That's next on the reading list.”
––Samantha Dickfos
“I make my living as a writer. What a blessing to have won awards, been published and earn enough money to support my family. I'm all too aware that few writers enjoy such a blessing. Mark Tredinnick was a major contributor to the blessing that is my writing story. His Little Red Writing Book workshop lit a fuse. My powder was dry, but this workshop, and Mark's book, truly set the fire. If you've ever aspired to write, this book needs to be on your shelves.”
––Dave Blissett
“The care and close attention Mark pays to the surroundings and to the work of each student in a class is amazing. Taking a class with Mark is indeed a wonderful experience, and there is no other like it.”
—Carol A Stephen
“I have read "Blue Plateau" twice. What a wonderful book! What great writing!”
––Laura Davis