Gutsy Cute Studio

Get Cuter. The doe-eyed and dangerous does poetic drama.

“If you bit me, I’d forgive you. Cute has its uses.” – Gyimah Gariba

“May I gently-gently lovingly gnaw on you?” – Kim Hyesoon (trans. Don Mee Choi), ‘I’m OK, I’m Pig!’

Did you know that, according to Sanrio, Hello Kitty wants to be a poet when she grows up?

Cute has undeniable and overwhelming power. It’s evolutionary. We feel it in our bodies, that weak-kneed awwww! response. We want to squeeze the cute thing, we want to feed it, we want to protect it. We get cute aggression. We want to save cute from ourselves, for ourselves. Cute is sweet, and soft, and defenceless – or is it? What if it’s just toying with us, waiting to catch us off-guard? What if cute is just a mask, a disguise, an artifice? And even if it were, would we care? Cute can do no wrong – and if it does, it’s cuter still. It didn’t mean it, it’s just a baby. Cute can get away with murder.

As poets, we should take cute seriously. The poet and the cute have much in common. Artifice, for example. Wanting to be heard. To elicit a bodily response. To fool our way into the juicy red heart of the reader and gobble it up, forever. To be wanted, and fed. To get away with it.

In this generative course, we will:

Explore the cuteness of the lyric ‘I’
Play with the aesthetics and conventions of cuteness to catch the reader off-guard
Enjoy an introductory flirtation with the Gurlesque
Toy with the dark side of cute

Our guiding stars will include Chelsey Minnis, Selima Hill, Toi Derricote, Lauren Cook, Ashnikko, John Keats, Phoebe Stuckes, and Hello Kitty. Come along and sink your teeth into the sugary, sparkly, doe-eyed world of cute.

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 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: @dannyhowe

About Ellora View Profile

Ellora Sutton is a poet and PhD student based in Hampshire. Her debut collection, Little Bitch (Verve, 2026), was described by Rachel Long as “sharp, tender, hilarious […] a marvel!” Her pamphlets include Artisanal Slush (Verve, 2023) and Antonyms for Burial (Fourteen Poems, 2022), which was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. She is the poetry reviewer for Mslexia, and is a Pamphlet Selector for the Poetry Book Society. Her work has been published in The Poetry Review, Poetry London, Magma, Berlin Lit etc. Ellora has been the poet-in-residence at both Jane Austen’s House and at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery, and museums continue to shape her work – her PhD research explores the experience of museums as walkable urban spaces through contemporary poetry. Outside of poetry (and often in it), her interests include baking, tarot, ice cream, and Titanic (both the boat and the 1997 film). She has a weakness for arcade claw machine and is on a lifelong quest to find the perfect red lip.

"Every course I have done with the Poetry School has led me to discover new poets both in the assignments and the poetry of the other people on the course. I have been inspired to write new poetry and am in the process of getting some published. Overall a great experience."

– Spring 2025 Survey Response

The Poetry School