The Practice of Poetry with Shazea Quraishi

Craft in community; the commitment you and your poetry are looking for to progress.

* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *

‘Getting started, keeping going, getting started again – in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convinced action, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others.’ – Seamus Heaney

‘Poetry, for me, is an instrument of investigation and a mode of perception, a way of knowing and feeling both self and world.’ – Jane Hirshfield

Would you like to develop a regular poetic practice that fits into the rhythms and demands of your life? In this course you will be supported over 3 terms to develop a sustainable practice that suits you, your life, and your poetics. You will be encouraged to set intentions – whether it’s to diversify your reading, expand your poetic toolkit, improve your confidence, take risks in your writing, or progress towards publication. Each term will include generative exercises to explore different ways into poems, strategies for developing your work, focus on craft and technique, and regular check-ins to help you stay on track and fine-tune your practice and progress towards your goals.

We’ll explore your influences and tendencies – whether in lineation, form, or any regular traits and tropes – and ask how you define your own poetic practice, as well as thinking about where you might like to take this next. We’ll explore whether the forms you frequently write in are really best serving your work or actually working against your intentions. You will be supported to explore and expand your poetics through reading and discussion of a wide range of contemporary poetry in English and in translation, from poets including Karen Solie, Nazim Hikmet, Mary Jean Chan, Joy Harjo, Arthur Sze, Jane Hirshfield, and Adam Zagajewski.

Of course, another important aspect of a developed poetic practice is your writerly community – this course will provide an intimate setting where you can access supportive peers, develop new poetic relationships, and become part of a vital poetry community.

So, join us to make (and keep) space in your life for the nourishing practice of reading and writing poetry, whether you have been writing for decades or are still early into your poetic journey.

10 weekly Zoom sessions on Wednesdays, 6.45–8.45pm (BST), starts 7 October 2026.

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: @steve

About Shazea Quraishi View Profile

Shazea Quraishi is a Pakistani-born Canadian poet and translator based in London.

She has published two collections with Bloodaxe Books — The Glimmer (2022), and The Art of Scratching (2012) — and two pamphlets The Taxidermist (Verve Poetry Press, 2020), and The Courtesans Reply (flipped eye publishing, 2010).

Her poems have appeared in publications in the UK, US and Canada, including The Guardian, The Financial Times, Poetry Review, and Modern Poetry in Translation, and have been anthologised in Mapping the Future: The Complete Works Poets (Bloodaxe Books, 2023), Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury Academic, U.S. 2023), The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write (Saqi Books, 2017), and others.

Shazea worked with English PEN as a writer on their outreach program in prisons and refugee communities, later joining the board as a trustee. She was on the committee of the Society of Author’s Poetry & Spoken word group, and is writer in residence with Living Words, an arts charity that works with marginalised people including those impacted by a dementia or mental health concerns.

She has taught for many years, with organisations including Arvon, The Poetry Society, Poetry Studio, Translators at School, English PEN, Exiled Writers and more.

"I learned so much from this course and this tutor and the peer group was great. Everyone was working together to get the best outcomes for each others work, with an impeccable lead from Shazea, the tutor."

- Spring 2025 Survey Response

The Poetry School