​What Poeple Say
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Our courses have inspired both new and experienced writers. Here is what they say about The Writer's Passage​
Testimonials ‘The Writer’s Passage’ (formerly Working the Word)
Jaya Penelope, poet: ...Breathtaking in its scope, The Writer's Passage is no mere creative writing course but a soulful journey through the enchanted forest of world literature with Horst Kornberger as a delightful and erudite guide. His knowledge of and enthusiasm for his subject is breathtaking and he should be declared a national treasure. I have no hesitation in recommending this course to anyone who has a love of literature and language and anyone who wants to grow such a love!
John Stubley, BA.English(Hons): I see this course as being of greater value than any creative writing or literature courses I have taken as part of my five years of university study. .... For anyone with any interest in writing, art or the human being, this course will help you realise the limitless potential we all have....
Dr Peter Stafford, artist performer and lecturer: After years spent working in academia I had become too 'clever'. I was very good at articulating a critical position, but was bereft of inspired solutions. Like many, I had hit a Post-modern dead-end. ...The Writer's Passage not only revealed solutions but also showed how the evolution of human consciousness has a certain 'genius' at its core, which when understood suggests a way forward - for both one's creative work and the soul's spiritual journey...
Harriet Sawyer:... I have been astonished by what unexpected bouquets have been plucked from pens, what doves have burst forth and flown. For anyone who loves the written word and would like to write more, I have nothing but praise for this course. The Writer's Passage has been an enlivening, joyful, and healing experience.
Nandi Chinna, writer/performer: ...we move beyond writing from our own narrow experience, and connect with the collective imagination of the writers and stories that inform our cultural and literary milieu...My writing has been enlivened and enriched by entering the world of language as taught in this course. The Writer's Passage has given me insight, courage, and the practical skills to engage in a lively and fulfilling writing life.
Desmonda Kearney, poet: For me The Writer's Passage was an amazing journey, both personally, and as a writer. It has given me a broad perspective on our collective heritage of myth, literature, and poetry, in an historical context....The writing exercises in The Writer's Passage have expanded me as a writer, and on a personal note, this course has very much influenced my direction both intellectually and poetically.
Anna Minska, poet, performer: My experience of The Writer’s Passage has been personally transformative and creatively liberating. Horst is deeply generous with his knowledge, passion and spirit, and the process he facilitates is nothing short of alchemic. My creative process has expanded into new territory and my writing has taken on new colour, shape and sound. Horst’s reverence for each participant’s unique creative spark and voicing is rare and precious, and has been profoundly healing for me to encounter. I am filled with gratitude for this experience. To anyone who wishes to nurture their imaginative, wordfull self — I cannot recommend this course highly enough!
Adrian Glamorgan, writer, creative writing teacher and community activist: As a professional writer, I especially appreciated my year as a student of The Writer's Passage.... If you are on the outer journey of learning to write well, and the inner journey of learning to live well, then this course will be a steady inspiration to you during the coming year.
Coral Carter, artist and poet:..was a cultural, emotional, social and philosophical writing feast. ... The Writer's Passage has made me a braver, stronger and more courageous writer...My writing confidence has soared.
Richard Smart, songwriter: The Writer's Passage was a real journey into my self. It allowed me to be child, tree, warrior, poet, Buddha, lost, found and so much more. ..... It taught me to write from the picture in my minds eye, to trust the picture and to simply let it unfold...
Sean Burke, educator and writer: It was a thoroughly enjoyable course, and full of inspiration for my work as a class teacher. By the end of the year even I had noticed a real improvement in the way in which I approached my own writing...
Rhea Pfeifle: .... it's that stepping into another's experience is so vital for writing with conviction. This is the magic and joy of the course. I loved the journey through the depth of human experience through history. I feel greatly enriched at having found a voice, my authentic voice in writing.
Jill Whitfield, teacher: ...writing flowed easily and effortlessly from our pens. ... 'motifs' were selected which resonated within each one of us ' and thus flowed our pens! How fascinating, and somehow reassuring, to discover our living links with Gilgamesh and Odysseus, with Rumi and Dante, with Shakespeare and Goethe. In my everyday life, I am constantly reminded of things I learnt while doing The Writer's Passage. It is a thoroughly worthwhile course that will live in you long after you have completed it. I highly recommend it.
Irene Soi Khim Tan: The Writer's Passage is not about the mechanics of writing. Rather, it is about reaching into the depths of the soul to bring forth one's unique expressive ability. In my mind, there is no writing without this. The course is highly lively, interactive, passionate and absolutely enjoyable.
Eva Cronstedt, writer: The Writer's Passage is an inspiring course that takes you on a fabulous journey through literature from early Indian, Persian, Egyptian and Greek and on to modern times. As interesting as the content of the course are the playful writing exercises. I found it a stimulating year that has helped to enrich my own work immeasurably.
Anne Williams, textile artist and educator: The Writer's Passage has been a grand tour of one of humanity's most precious and enduring qualities, our relationship to language...... It has been a fascinating journey, often surprising, sometimes challenging, always stimulating. I have felt encouraged and nourished by this course.
Maggie Brackenridge:...my sense of wonder and awe of nature is slowly returning and I have met again my poet's heart. This course has helped me own and inhabit my life in a deeper way. It has shown me who I am! It was like a resuscitation of the Soul.
Sue McBurnie: From the beginning of the course I knew I had found something that would enable me to contact the childhood innocence that holds my creative force. You find yourself constantly surprised at what appears on the page. Stories and poems begin to write themselves .
Justin Beal, poet, anthropologist:...empathy is obtained with civilizations of the past, through their literatures, and one realizes that resonances of these ancient experiences reside within us today. The study of ancient and modern literatures highlights the shared experiences of humanity. I found the course both cathartic and therapeutic.
Ann Harrison: I am indeed privileged and have had a provoking year, inspiring scholarism and an absolute thirst for so much more. How sad that many of the great masters are not part of our every day school curriculum. This knowledge would sow greater understanding and lead us on to better, fairer and wiser decision making. I have come to appreciate all has been done before in the world , there are bench marks, nothing is new just the story line…. All I can say is this year has been remarkable and I really look forward to continuing the journey next year
​Testimonials Writing into the Life of Things
In this work of writing about rocks, plants and things that make up the physical world, the inner poet lifts the latch and escapes into clear daylight, solid ground and rolling seas. Soon stereo enhances your song and you find the audience is yourself. Astounded.
Patricia Johnson
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We are living in an age in which unprecedented loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction and global climate change are a compelling threat to the values of the wondrous planet that we call home. It is ever more urgent that writers, artists and thinkers find ways of engaging and connecting with life other than human. With increasingly technologically dominated lives how do we form a relationship with with the plants and animals and the soils that support us all. In Writing into the Life of Things, Horst Kornberger takes us right to the source of nature language to commune with the very beings and attributes that the earth is made of. Horst encourages us to explore the intimate detail of rocks, minerals, plants and flowers, to imagine what the amethyst might say, or what language the marri, tuart or banksia might speak. Writing into the Life of Things is about observing and listening to the earth's dialects and learning to express the relationship that develops between the writer and nature.
Nandi Chinna, poet, writer and activist
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Expect the unexpected...You will find yourself in a challenging, yet utterly fascinating and multifarious poetic adventure that you can simply NOT imagine and you will emerge from it with a different view on our world. Being guided by Horst you will grow to find paths into a world that is mostly silent unless poets like us take the time to listen and tune in. WE GIVE A VOICE TO NATURE, to plants and rocks, to creation and miracles where no voices can be otherwise heard...
An incredible amount of inner wealth has been created for me while writing in the World Work project and access was granted to our inner arches of intuition. If you are up for an inner journey of creative splendour you will love this!
Brigita Frenencak
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I am a writer with a passionate commitment to the natural world. Over the decades of my writing career I have engaged with many communities and types of knowledge – from science to activism. Each kind of wisdom has given me a gift, and continues to inform my work. However, I can honestly say that the year I spent working with Horst Kornberger on deepening my connection to the natural world has been one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Horst's skill as a facilitator of writing engagement with the world is unparalleled. His skill, ethics, imagination and courage mean that each workshop with him was an extraordinary adventure going further and deeper than any individual could have dreamed was possible at the outset. I especially liked Horst's capacity to create a safe working space, where the ego demons that often plague writers simply did not enter. It did not matter who was published and who was not. It did not matter whether you had spent a lifetime writing, or were only just daring to pick up your pen for the first time. There was magic in this work – the synergies that emerged within the group, the massive increase in our capacity to empathically and intuitively connect with the innate wisdom of the natural world was truly beautiful. I would turn up to the workshops dry and exhausted by the stresses of ordinary living – only to leave three hours later transformed and energised and profoundly re-connected to the world. It has also provided a fertile seedbed of imaginings and writings to keep my going for a long time to come. To do this kind of work in a retreat environment would be a priceless gift.
Dr Liana Joy Christensen, former editor of Landscope Magazine and author of Deadly Beautiful – vanishing killers of the animal kingdom, Unnatural History and Wild Familiars..