Tangents, Risk, & Intensity: Neurodiversity as Creative Process

Explore neurodivergent thinking as a source of poetic power as we put our skills of divergence, intensity, and spontaneity into new poems.

This International Asynchronous course invites writers to explore their neurodivergent thinking as a source of poetic power. Through multi-sensory exercises, tangential thinking, emotional intensity, and risk-taking, students will cultivate a personal voice that embraces divergence, spontaneity, and non-linear creativity.

Participants will work with a combination of reading, guided exercises, and reflective prompts that integrate sound, colour, movement, and abstraction into their writing. Music, visual mapping, and imaginative play serve as catalysts to unlock raw emotional expression, lateral thinking, and structural innovation in poetry.

This course emphasizes process over perfection, encouraging writers to explore their cognitive diversity as a creative advantage. Students are supported in developing a flexible, self-aware practice that transforms divergence, intensity, and spontaneity into poetry.

By the end of the course, students will have produced a portfolio of poems reflecting their unique cognitive processes and an artist manifesto that articulates their creative intent.

5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 19 Jan 2026. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.

Concessions & Accessibility

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. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image credit: @pawel_czerwinski

About Samatar Elmi View Profile

Samatar Elmi is an award-winning writer, musician, and educator. His debut pamphlet, Portrait of Colossus (flipped eye press, 2021), was selected as a PBS Pamphlet Choice. His stunning debut collection, The Epic of Cader Idris (Bloomsbury, 2024), includes the 2021 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize winning poem. Poems have appeared widely including in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Magma, and Iota and anthologised in More Fiya, Filigree, After Plath, and The Echoing Gallery. Elmi is an Obsidian Fellow, flipped eye press associate poetry editor, and Scarf Magazine poetry editor.

Elmi has performed live in session for Janice Long (BBC Wales), at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, for the Poetry Society, at the Serpentine Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery and Rich Mix. He was highlighted as a ‘One To Watch’ at Latitude Festival 2021. Elmi “whose plangent lyrics disguise a sharp bite”, was recently commended in the Guardian poetry roundup. He also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Warsan Shire on a Nation of Poets’. He releases music as Knomad Spock.

"I find the Poetry School courses varied and they tackle common poetic themes as well as contemporary ones."

- Summer 2025 Survey Response

The Poetry School