Transreading 40 Years of Tears in the Fence
Write poetry at the pointy end – pioneers, protest, and poetics of the possible.
This course will explore the different poetic registers and poetics employed by Tears in the Fence journal during the past forty years. There will be a deep delve into the wide field of the traditional and experimental.
Tears in the Fence was born out of the eco-feminist protest movement in the summer of 1984. The ambiguous title references both cultural resistances to fences across public rights of way, barriers to greater access to the natural world, and the Greenham Common women’s peace camp, which had been evicted in April 1984. Sarah Hopkins who co-wrote Greenham Common: Women at the Wire (Women’s Press, 1984), joined the magazine in November 1984, and became an integral part of the magazine for the next thirty years. Attention will be given to the changes in the UK poetry scene since Tears in the Fence began, how the journal evolved and developed its identity and maintained an internationalist outlook from its inception. The magazine expanded its eco-feminist poetics, being inspired by the various alternative poetries developed by the Cambridge School, San Francisco Renaissance, Black Mountain, Beat, New York School poetry, and their subsequent developments, and gradually became the main independent literary magazine in the UK. Being more receptive to women poets and a range of non-mainstream poetic approaches enabled the magazine to reach both back to poets of the British Poetry Revival and forward to much younger poets with an ecological and multilingual awareness.
At the core of the journal is a belief in difference and the other and that there are many ways of writing an effective and memorable poem. This course will show something of the range of possibilities and introduce some beguiling and quirky poems.
5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.
Concessions & Accessibility
To apply for a concessionary rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected]. For more information visit our Online Courses page.
Image credit: Tears in the Fence
About David Caddy 
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David Caddy is a writer, critic, editor, and poetry mentor. He has published books of poetry, essays, and travel writing. He has edited the independent international literary journal, Tears in the Fence since 1984. His most recent book is Interiors and Other Poems (Shearsman Books, 2023) and new collection, Pond Life, is due in 2024.
Previous books include The Bunny Poems (Shearsman Books), So Here We Are: Essays on English Poetry (Shearsman Books), and Cycling After Thomas and the English (Spout Hill Press). He was the co-author of London: City of Words (Blue Island) with Westrow Cooper, and has worked as a literary and editorial advisor for various organisations.
He leads an online poetry workshop, a mentoring and critical service, teaches writing at Bryanston School, and has directed the annual Tears in the Festival since 2011. From 1985 to 2001 he organised the East Street Poets, the UK’s largest rural poetry group, presenting poetry readings, workshops, residential writing weekends, educational visits, and the annual Wessex Poetry Festival.
"I really enjoy being part of a community of poets and the valuable sense of growth the classes give me in terms of workshopping and writing."
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