Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)It’s just over a week to go before our Summer Term starts. We’ve dozens of new courses and workshops – both face to face and online – to help you wrangle your poems into shape. You can download the whole programme here – or browse the highlights below. Not taken one of our classes before? Dip a toe in, we’re very friendly. A regular, returning student? Welcome back!
FACE TO FACE COURSES
Pamphlet Potential
Tutor: Daljit Nagra
Venue: The Poetry School
Day / Time: Mondays, fortnightly, 6.45 – 8.45pm
Duration: 4 sessions
Start Date: 5 May
Price: £67, £60, £54
Level: intermediate / advanced
Are you entering a pamphlet competition or gathering your work to send to pamphlet publishers? If you would like some help working through principles to help you increase your chances of success come along to Daljit’s course. In the sessions, Daljit will help you realise the potential of your poetry by getting you closer to the essence of your work so it shapes the reader’s response whilst ensuring its best qualities are evident.
For you if: you’re working towards a collection, you want to maximise your chances in pamphlet competitions, you’re working on a sequence
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
The Plot inside the Poem
Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra
Venue: The Poetry School
Day / Time: Tuesdays, 6.45 – 8.45pm
Duration: 6 weeks
Start Date: 6 May
Price: £102, £92, £82
Level: intermediate
Beginning with the premise that inside every poem there’s a nugget of story, or at least that our minds are complicit in seeing one, you’ll examine the often-hidden role of narrative in poetry, and practise some of the techniques that poets use to disguise, subvert and mutate the story whilst retaining enough of it to entice the reader to read between the lines, read on, and read again.
For you if: you’re a storytelling poet, you want to write poems based on memories or relationships, you write fiction as well and are interested in blurring the lines between fiction and poetry
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Defining a Style
Tutor: Tim Dooley
Venue: The Poetry School
Day / Time: Tuesdays, 6.45 – 8.45pm
Duration: 10 weeks
Start Date: 6 May
Price: £155, £139, £124
Level: open to all
This student-centred course is designed both for experienced writers looking to widen their repertoire and for relative beginners looking for a more structured approach to their writing. You will have the opportunity to define your goals as a writer while continuing to develop a body of creative work. You will consider different approaches to poetry and aesthetics – as expressed explicitly in manifestos and interviews with writers, and implicitly in writers’ practice – while continuing to explore ways in which writing can engage with public or private themes and examine the different effects of free and formal verse structures and of working within artificial constraints. Through exercises, reading, writing, group feedback and one-to-one or small group planning sessions, you will be encouraged to construct an independent voice, which is consistent from poem to poem and to develop confidence in shaping your work. Students who have completed the Spring term ‘Developing a Style’ course will be given priority when booking but ‘Defining a Style’ is also suitable for those seeking a one-term stand-alone course.
For you if: you want regular exercises and feedback to stimulate and comment on your work, if you want to get a clearer sense of your poetic and artistic purpose
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Every Page a Stage
Tutor: Jane Draycott
Venue: The Poetry School
Days / Times: Tues 17 June 7-9 pm, Sat 21 June
10.30am-4.30pm, Tues 24 June 7-9 pm, Sat 28 June
10.30am-4.30pm, Tues 1 July 7-9 pm
Price: £193, £174, £154
Level: intermediate
A series of five writing workshops over two weeks, experimenting with ways to dramatise the imaginative worlds of your poems using composition tricks held in common with drama and scriptwriting. Looking at the power of scene and setting, the dynamics of characterised voice and spot-dialogue, as well as suspense and tension, each workshop will consist of exercises to produce draft new poems for revision and development in your own time. (If you would like to pay in two instalments please book by 17 May).
For you if: you’ve got a film / poem / hybrid project in mind, if you love movies and poetry and want to see how they cross fertilise each other, if you enjoy making up your own rules
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Singing School
Tutor: David Morley
Venue: The Poetry School
Date: Sunday 25 May
Time: 10.30am – 4.30pm
Price: £69, £62, £55
Level: open to all
‘For what? For the ear? For the people?’ – Seamus Heaney, The Song of the Earth. First we will listen to songs of the earth: dawn chorus and susurration. Then we will listen to songs of speech: ghazal and lyric, ballad and lullaby – poetry at the top of its voice or tip of the tongue. Then we shall write poems that sing. Your words will dance forward, play off each other. Our workshop will be a singing school and our work the singing line. The hard work will come as we ask why we must – and must continue to – sing in the face of everything that would have us silent.
For you if: you’ve got a keen ear, if the oral / aural qualities of a poem are what moves you most, if you’re interested in the natural world even in the middle of a city
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
The Poetry of the Erotic
Tutor: Conor O’Callaghan
Venue: The Poetry School
Date: Saturday 31 May
Time: 10.30am – 4.30pm
Price: £69, £62, £55
Level: open to all
A day-long workshop considering how the art of poetry responds to the charge of eroticism. Sift through a selection of racy poems, from the ancients to the digital age, from oblique sensual suggestion to frank sexual description, and respond to that tradition by drafting new poems.
For you if: you want to write powerful poetry for people you love or used to love, if you’re scared by the very idea of writing erotic poetry in company and you want to test yourself, if you’re sick of 50 Shades of Grey
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Ssh … I’m collaborating!
Tutor: Katrina Naomi
Venue: The Poetry School
Date: Saturday 7 June
Time: 10.30am – 4.30pm
Price: £69, £62, £55
Level: open to all
This poetry and art collaboration workshop packs a lot into a day. Bring along an image of a favourite work of art and a poem of your own. You’ll pair up with another poet and be given a set of collaboration ‘rules’. Once the writing starts (you’ll draft two new poems) there’s no talking. Come with an established writing partner or enjoy the serendipity of an on-the-day meeting, and see what happens. A day about collaboration but maybe not as you know it …
For you if: you want to share the responsibility for creativity with another, if you like wriggling out of rules and constraints
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Saturday Session: Reading First World War Poets
Tutor: Graham Fawcett
Venue: The Poetry School
Date: Saturday 28 June
Time: 10.30am – 4.30pm
Price: £69, £62, £55
Level: open to all
The war poems of Wilfred Owen, as indelible as newsreel, are at the heart of this reading day – but you’ll discover others, both familiar and wonderfully unfamiliar, who also transform war’s violence exhilaratingly into poetry’s beauty: Sassoon, Kipling, Pound, Gibson, Gurney, Yeats, Apollinaire, Graves, Thomas, de la Mare, Hardy, Lawrence, Brooke, Rosenberg, Frost, Edith Wharton, Nina Murdoch, Housman, and several unknown soldiers. Donne’s ‘Death, thou shalt die’ has never rung more true.
For you if: you know everything there is to know about WW1 poetry, if you know nothing at all about WW1 poetry, if you want an introduction to the most powerful cultural response to the 20 century’s most cataclysmic evenst
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Breaking Out: Originality and Voice
Tutor: Jane Yeh
Venue: The Poetry School
Date: Saturday 5 July
Time: 10.30am – 4.30pm
Price: £69, £62, £55
Level: open to all
‘No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader’: this session will help you put Robert Frost’s dictum to work, focusing on the ways poems can leap, turn, and hopscotch their way out of predictability. Break free from linear thinking and expand the imaginative possibilities of your work, whether your style is traditional or experimental. Through open-ended writing exercises and discussions of a variety of published poems, we’ll play with techniques for developing distinctive voices and perspectives as writers. Last but not least, your pre-submitted poems will be workshopped in a friendly, supportive environment with an eye to shaping them for maximum impact. This course is open to anyone looking for ways to bring out the freshness and originality in their writing. Please send three poems (each no longer than 40 lines maximum) by e-mail to the Poetry School after your booking is confirmed.
For you if: you’re bored by your own poems, if you want some new ideas to break old habits
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
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ONLINE COURSES
Where it Begins
Tutor: Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Duration: 10 weeks / 5 sessions
Course starts: 14 May
Live chats: Wednesdays, 7pm GMT
First live chat: 28 May
Price: £91, £80, £71
Level: open to all/beginner
Where does a poem begin? What marks the difference between a poem and other forms of writing? Exploring some of the defining elements of poetry, such as the line ending, this course will unpack the crafting of poetry, from the most basic fun rhyme to subtle political commentary. Although the approaches used may be wacky, there will still be a focus on good old-fashioned editing, the whittling of things to their most beautiful essence, never forgetting that poems begin in the land of play, the world of fun. If you have ever wanted to write poetry but were not sure how to start, this is where it begins.
For you if: you’ve got blank page fear, if you want to learn foolproof ways to fill your notebook with material which you can learn to edit and craft
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
What Gives Us Our Names
Tutor: Alvin Pang
Duration: 10 weeks / 5 sessions
Course starts: 10 May
Live chats: Saturdays, 10am GMT
First live chat: 24 May
Price: £91, £80, £71
Level: open to all
Names have power: they can be given or erased, can mask or reveal, be traded in love or through sacrifice. Names can be sacred or profane, serve as spells, be called upon or cursed. Abstract ideas, personified and given name, become gods and monsters. Much writing, and poetry in particular, is impelled by the need to give voice to thought or experience; to give each a name. This course will look at poems from across time and space to explore how names and naming have been used in different ways to come to terms with what it means to be human, and more. Have a go at naming (or renaming) the things that matter in your own world, through a variety of fun follow-up writing games.
For you if: you love playing with words, you’re curious about what words mean and the secrets they contain, you’re drawn the symbolic power of language, you like to read the dictionary before you go to bed
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
5 Easy Pieces
Tutors: Liz Berry, Richie McCaffery, Miriam Gamble, Liane Strauss, Ryan Van Winkle
Duration: 10 weeks / 5 sessions
Course starts: 7 May
Live chats: Wednesdays, 7pm GMT
First live chat: 21 May
Price: £91, £80, £71
Level: open to all
Five of our favourite poets. Five random exercises. Plunge into the unknown and explore the possibilities of your voice and verse technique with this mystery assortment of poetic delights. Each assignment on 5 Easy Pieces has been uniquely created by one our hand-selected team of tutors, each one aimed at students of all levels. The twist? Your assignments will only be revealed at very last moment, exactly two weeks prior to each live chat. If you’re looking for a 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. What secrets will this sweet jar reveal? Will it be a Chocolate Hazelnut Dream, or one of those nasty things with the orange liqueur? There’s only one way to find out…
For you if: you’re stuck in a writing rut, you like a surprise, you’re looking to try out new and interesting ways of writing poetry outside your comfort zone
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Autobiographical Poetry: Uses of ‘I’
Tutor: Katrina Naomi
Duration: 10 weeks / 5 sessions
Course starts: 13 May
Live chats: Tuesdays, 7pm GMT
First live chat: 27 May
Price: £91, £80, £71
Level: open to all
How many ‘selves’ have you got? And is all poetry autobiographical? Come and find out on this interactive course mixing reading and discussion, the generation of new poems, theory, and feedback on your poetry. Each session, Katrina will set a writing exercise that builds on poem examples. You will consider themes such as the nature of memory and truth, persona and the self, gender, ethics – and whether the term ‘confessional’ should be consigned to the bin. You’ll also discuss work by Emily Berry, TedHughes, Antjie Krog, Robert Lowell, Kei Miller, Sharon Olds, Pascale Petit, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Sam Willetts and Yusuf Komunyakaa.
For you if: you want to explore more about who you are where you’ve come from, you want to learn more about writing character, you want to write poetry for your family and friends
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Mythopoesis
Tutor: John Clegg
Duration: 10 weeks / 5 sessions
Course starts: 12 May
Live chats: Mondays, 7pm GMT
First live chat: 26 May
Price: £91, £80, £71
Level: open to all
‘There is one story, and one story only / That will prove worth your telling’: so wrote Robert Graves, in ‘To Juan at the Winter Solstice’. This course will explore how folktales, myth cycles and other oral literature can provide stimuli and technical possibilities for poets working today. What separates archetypes from clichés, plain from flat language? Close reading and discussion of some less familiar mythic texts, as well as contemporary poetry that takes its bearing from these themes (including works by Ted Hughes, Vasko Popa, Selima Hill, Les Murray and Helen Ivory), will be interspersed with exercises allowing you to employ the stylistic features of myth as prompts for your own writing.
For you if: you enjoy myth cycles and folk legends of yore and want to try your hand at writing your own, you tell a mean fairy tale
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
Online Feedback Course with Hannah Lowe
Tutor: Hannah Lowe
Duration: 10 weeks / 5 sessions
Course starts: 9 May
First poem submission deadline: 23 May
Price: £60, £53, £47
Level: open to all
Do you have a heap of discarded poems sitting on your sideboard or desktop which just won’t work no matter how many revisions you make? The Poetry School’s online feedback workshops provide a place for the general improvement of your left-for-dead poems, your work in need of refreshment, and your brand new pieces. Bring poems of any size or shape to these sessions for detailed written feedback once a fortnight from a tutor, and general group feedback from fellow students. This group will be especially good for those with a large batch of poems that they are looking to ready for magazine submission.
For you if: you have a heap of draft poems that need polishing up, you’re getting ready to submit to magazines and publishers
To book: online or call 0207 582 1679
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