Summer courses on CAMPUS

Dear CAMPUS poets – our swimming shorts are on and our 12 tog duvets have been stuffed back in the attic. Summer is arriving.

The Poetry School’s summer term starts 5 May 2014 and we’ve got lots of new, excellent online courses packed full of powerful poetry prompts and fool-proof exercises to get you all writing more poems.

What Gives Us Our Names with Alvin Pang: the power of names and naming. What do our names mean? Where do they come from? And why do names – of things, of people, of concepts – matter? Come explore the symbolic power of language at its most fundamental.

5 Easy Pieces: A new pick n’ mix style poetry course. Five of our favourite poets, five random exercises. If you’re looking for a random variety of stimulating activities to help generate new kinds of poetry or simply fancy putting your poetic wits to test, you need look no further.

Where It Begins with Nii Ayikwei Parkes. Where does a poem begin? What marks the difference between a poem and other forms of writing? If you have ever wanted to write poetry but were not sure how to start, this is where it begins. Ideal for beginners.

Poetry and the Visual with Tamar Yosellof: transforming images into language, metaphor and narrative. How do poets describe the visual? And in an age of image overload, how do we make sense of so much visual stimuli?

Going Home / Not Going Home with Claire Trévien: poetry, tourism and faraway places. Go on journeys both real and imaginary and explore ideas of travel, crossing borders, foreign lands and how language itself can and can’t be a home.

How to Get Rich with Roddy Lumsden: vocabulary-building masterclass. Expand your diction, dive head first into the dictionary and revel in the richness of language. For advanced poets.

Mythopoesis with John Clegg: the poetry of myth-making. Discover how folktales, myth cycles and other oral literature can provide stimuli for poets working today, by way of Ted Hughes, Vasko Popa, Selima Hill, Les Murray and Helen Ivory.

Wunderkammer! Writing the Curious with Helen Ivory. Are you fascinated by odd objects? Do you collect curios? Re-discover your childhood sense of wonder and deliver poetic responses to an assortment of antiquarian oddities and cultural artefacts.

Autobiographical Poetry: Uses of ‘I’ with Katrina Naomi. Who are we and how many? Go in search of your inner ‘multitudes’ and learn to write autobiographical poems under the aegis of your many different ‘selves’.

And don’t forget, we’ve also two great new Online Feedback Workshops from Hannah Lowe and Antony Dunn, perfect for dusting off those problem poems sitting in your top drawer and getting fresh critical insight into your work.

All courses are bookable online now – and if you’d like some personal advice about which course is best for you, please email me ([email protected]) or give us a ring on 0207 582 1679.