From Miniature to Global: Ecological Imaginaries Studio

Close reading the word and the world.

Carved into your shell we find trade routes, the wake of explorers, contours of underwater mountains, the migratory patterns of whales. – Jane Lovell “Ming” On Earth, as it is

Join us to explore how the minutest of objects, details or words can offer new ways of thinking about the climate emergency.

In this Studio course, we will explore how poems can connect minute, concrete details to much larger global issues: ideas of hope, action, and care. We will start with the minute (with the aim of going beyond it) and explore the techniques that the ‘minute’ calls upon us to pursue – to take care, to look closely, to notice detail, to slow down, to listen, to use all of our senses. The aim is to explore how looking closer and taking our time offers fresh perspectives on the world.

From Seamus Heaney’s fish mouths and poisoned lakes to Karen McCarthy Woolf’s white butterflies and unfathomable loss, we will draw inspiration from poems which connect the specific to the vast. We will examine texts by authors such as Wendell Berry, Jason Allen-Paisant, William Wordsworth, Mary Oliver, Megan Kitching, Zaffar Kunial, and Virginia Woolf.

Through a series of practical tasks, inspiring texts and creative prompts, we will seek and create our own poetics of hope, detail, care and action. You will come away with new and workshopped poems, fresh ideas and new ways of looking at the world.

Studios are 4-week intensive courses. Reading material will be distributed before the course begins. There are no live chats so they are suitable for both 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, wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, or require any form of adjustment to access our courses, please email [email protected]. For more information visit our Online Courses page.

Image credit: @wanderingcrow

About Rachel Bower View Profile

Rachel Bower is the author of two poetry collections and an academic book on literary letters. Her debut novel, It Comes from the River will be published by Bloomsbury in January 2025. Her new poetry collection, Bee, is out with Hazel Press in May 2025, and she is currently working with Buglife on a collection about endangered insects. Rachel was awarded second place in the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year 2024, and her poems and stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including The White Review, Magma, The Rialto and Stand. She had a poem Highly Commended in the Ginkgo Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Best Poem of UK Landscape 2023. Rachel won The London Magazine Short Story Prize and the W&A Short Story Competition in 2020. Her work is represented by Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.

"I’ve really enjoyed the community and interaction of this course as a writer that lives remotely it has been a great opportunity to engage with the work of people from different places."

- Autumn 2024 Survey Response

The Poetry School