Friday Workshop with Natasha Hakimi Zapata
A weekly workshop for developing poets looking to improve their writing through feedback and close reading.
* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *
This is a course suitable for intermediate writers who want to improve their skills and pen new poetry that builds on previous work, as well as explore new forms, themes, and language. Each week, we will focus mainly on workshopping your own writing; we will read and discuss your poems-in-progress, developing familiarity with each other’s work and offering detailed feedback with the aim of moving your writing forward, all the while establishing a community of poets, we hope you can count on for years to come.
There will also be opportunities to discuss the work of published poets and issues in contemporary poetry with the aim of inspiring you to emulate them and then ‘make it new’ in your own writing. Through exercises and group feedback, you will be encouraged to construct an independent voice and to develop confidence both in shaping your work and in defending it, always with the shared goal of helping your own and your peers’ poetry evolve.
This course is currently in a Priority Booking period, meaning it is only available to students continuing from the previous term. We will open any remaining spaces to new students on Monday 18 November. If you would like to be added to the waiting list for this, please email [email protected].
10 weekly Zoom sessions on Fridays, 2–4pm (GMT), starts 17 Jan 2025. N.B. There are no sessions taking place on 21 & 28 Feb.
To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. More information about how our Video Courses work can be found on the Video Courses page. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].
Image credit: @didsss
About Natasha Hakimi Zapata 
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Natasha Hakimi Zapata is a poet, journalist, university lecturer, and literary translator whose first non-fiction book, Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America From Around the Globe, is forthcoming in 2025 from The New Press. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, In These Times, and elsewhere, and she has received numerous awards for her creative writing, journalism, and literary criticism. In 2016, Literal Publishing released full-length bilingual editions of her translations of Alicia Borinsky’s My Husband’s Woman and Liliana Lukin’s Theater of Operations poetry collections. She holds a Creative Writing M.F.A. from Boston University and B.A.’s in Spanish and in English with a creative writing concentration from the University of California, Los Angeles. Follow her on Instagram at @natashahakimizapata or Twitter/X at @natashakimiz.
"It is has been such a pleasure to learn about poetry with my fellow students under Natasha's expert guidance. For three terms now I have looked forward to Friday afternoons each week. From day one Natasha created a warm atmosphere where everyone was encouraged to develop their own voice. The assignments have been both varied and challenging, and Natasha has introduced me to many interesting new poets to read. Not only do I feel more confident in revising my own poems and in giving feedback in a workshop format, but the regular, close study of my peers' work also means I have a deeper enjoyment of reading poetry more generally. Thank you!"
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