Miramichi, New Brunswick (Canada)
A Moncton writer is working to bring poetry into the lives of incarcerated women in New Brunswick.
For the past two years, Kayla Geitzler has offered a six-week poetry course twice a year to women at the Women’s Correctional Centre in Miramichi.
The first course included more than poetry, she said.
“It looked at a whole bunch of different kinds of writing, but the women really seemed to pull more towards the poetry,” Geitzler said in an interview on Information Morning Fredericton.
While she thinks her poetry group is a first at the prison, she said the Miramichi Literary Council also has a book club at the institution.
The women she’s encountered at the correctional centre trust her and open up to her, she said.
“Most of them have never written poetry before but I’m always blown away by just how much talent they have, and I’m always really grateful.”
“But usually when I give a workshop for the public, there’s almost always one person who’s just really talented and could go on to have a writing career.”
Some of the women use poetry to ponder life once they get out of prison, and their resiliency and humour also comes out through writing, Geitzler said.
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