Posts By: Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Poetry Books of the Year 2019
Well, it’s been a remarkable year for poetry and the Poetry School. So remarkable, in fact, that we haven’t had time to do full justice to our annual best-of-the-year list. Worry not: we’ve managed to scrabble together enough time not spent in poetic reverie or arguing over kerning to recommend fifty-two of the year’s finest…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
We are hiring!
We are currently looking for an enthusiastic arts or business graduate who wants to join our friendly team in Canada Water as our new Digital Programming and Marketing Assistant, and an exceptional Finance and Operations Officer to work closely with the executive director to ensure the growth and development of the School at this exciting…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Concessions & Bursaries – new rates from Autumn 2019
Can’t afford the full price of one of our courses? Don’t despair – there are options available. Please note: that you may be required to provide proof of eligibility for our concessionary rates. Discounts do not apply to our one-to-one programme or travelling workshops. Give us a call in the office (020 7582 1679) to…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Against English: an interview with Harry Giles
Will Barrett: Hi Harry. Tell us about your upcoming course with the Poetry School, ‘Against English: Dialects, Distortions and New Vocabularies’. Harry Giles: Hi! ‘Against English’ grew out of a one-off session I did with the Poetry School a few years ago, exploring the overlaps between writing in regional dialects, in experimental constraints, and in sound…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Now Hear This: A Mixtape
To celebrate our upcoming course, Now Hear This: Percussion, Tune and the Poetics of Hip Hip, our tutor and MC, Eric Berlin, has kindly put together this mixtape of the best tracks from his favourite lyricists in the game. It’s a great way to fend off these slate grey, droopy January days. If this doesn’t…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Poetry School Books of the Year 2017
What were your top five poetry books of the year? What about top one hundred? Despite a rumour to the contrary… this year has been an alarmingly thick one for poetry. Stupefyingly thick. Not simply coats-the-back-of-a-spoon thick, but thick-enough-to-stand-up-in-a-straw thick, cutting-off-oxygen-flow-thick, a year so thick with great poetry you could re-mortar Dame Mary Archer’s 1683 residence, The Old Vicarage…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
“I’ve been told not to say ‘puppy’ or ‘rainbow’ and not to shout ‘fire'”: Eric Berlin’s Stand-Up Poetry Studio
Our online programme producer, Will Barrett, talks comedy & poetry with National Poetry Competition winner Eric Berlin ahead of his Autumn online course, Stand-Up Poetry Studio. Hi Eric – it’s open mic night at the Goofy Moose. What’s your opening joke? Eric: Well, I think most people actually hate jokes. Being told a bunch of jokes…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Want to write reviews for us?
If you’re a poet and interested in writing reviews on the latest poetry releases, then listen up! We’ve decided to make a few tentative tip-toes into the poetry reviewing game, and we want YOU to help. We will pay £60 for a review of one collection or poetry book, at a blog-friendly length of at…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Welcome to our shiny new website
A quick word from our Digital Programme Producer… So why has this all happened? Well, our existing website was coming up to its sixth birthday, which is practically ancient in digital dog years, and as good a reason as any to give the site a fresh look. More importantly, both CAMPUS and everything else the…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Announcing our Digital Open Day 2016
Impressive announcement klaxon! Yes, that’s right – don your party capes and matching booties as we’re having another Digital Open Day this 5 May 2016. In the next couple of weeks we will be throwing off our winter clothes and unveiling our new look web platform, bringing together our two existing sites – thepoetryschool.com and…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Tales from the frontline: a conversation with Shey Hargreaves
An Interview with Shey Hargreaves
Halfway through her four-week digital poetry residency with 1215today, we talked to writer Shey Hargreaves about her work, why even bad jobs are about more than just paying the bills, and her frontline experience of recent cuts to healthcare in this country. Note: this interview was originally published on the 1215today website. Hi Shey, can…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Pub Chats: Longbarrow Press
An Interview with Longbarrow Press
In the latest of our series of feature-length interviews with independent publishers, set in our imaginary poetry theatre pub somewhere in Lambeth, we shared a pint with Brian Lewis of Longbarrow Press… Hello there! What are you drinking? Brian: A pint of Easy Rider (courtesy of Sheffield’s Kelham Island brewery). How long has Longbarrow Press been running? Brian: We launched…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
The Line Break #9 – Ouyang Yu: Creative Mistakes
THE LINE BREAK
Will Barrett (Poetry School)Pub Chats: if p then q
In the latest of our series of feature-length interviews with independent publishers, set in our imaginary poetry theatre pub somewhere in Lambeth, we spoke to James Davies of if p then q… Hello there, James! What are you drinking? James: I’ll have a Death in the Afternoon cheers. How long has if p then q been running? James: Eight good years. What…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
The Line Break #8 – Jane Hirshfield: What Comes Through
THE LINE BREAK
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Woah, look at all this extra stuff!
There are lots of new additions and nifty enhancements to discover on this new version of poetryschool.com. Here’s a rundown of what’s new and why: 1) AUTOMATIC ENROLMENT Book onto any course or workshop – online or face to face – and immediately access your course group on CAMPUS Automatic enrolment means you can…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)Not the T S Eliots 2015: our best poetry books of the year
So here it is, our reasonably eagerly-awaited end of year list, a miscellany of the most thumbed, borrowed and coffee-splotted poetry books and pamphlets lying around the Poetry School offices. In many ways, it’s been a remarkable year: Radio 4 whole day takeover of Andrew Marr’s epic radio documentary on British poetry; Daljit Nagra’s appointment…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
Meet the Digital Poet in Residence: Clare Shaw
Hi Clare! Tell us about your upcoming residency, ‘You took the words right out my mouth’. Clare: I’m a poet, but until recently I spent most of my working life as a trainer and researcher in mental health services. This work was explicitly rooted in my own history – a history which has also found…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
‘You took the words right out my mouth’
Next week we will be welcoming the 11th Digital Poet in Residence to the CAMPUS community. Please give a warm welcome to Clare Shaw – poet, Poetry School tutor, mental health researcher and trainer. In this residency – ‘You took the words right out my mouth’ – Clare will explore the practice of ventriloquism in…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)National World Octopus Poetry Day
Today is National Poetry Day, but did you know that today is also World Octopus Day? Coincidence? We think not. We discovered not too long ago that almost everyone who worked for the Poetry School had written, completely independently of the other, a poem about an octopus. This included our former Director, Ollie Dawson, whose…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)Meet the Digital Poet in Residence: Lavinia Singer
An Interview with Lavinia Singer
Hi Lavinia! When we first started discussing your residency – For the Love of Craft: Confessions of a Bibliophile – you spoke about wanting to “defend your aestheticist interests”. So could we start by explaining what those are and why you think they need defending? Lavinia: I suppose the issue is with beauty and how to…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)Cosmos and discovery: an interview with Claire Trévien
An Interview with Claire Trévien
Ah the astronomer’s lot. Now cool again thanks to Brian Cox, but in principle only really fathomable if you have a degree in astrophysics, a finer understanding of stellar mass spectrums, and a very expensive telescope. To an easily confused outsider (which is exactly what I am) it used to be the wonder expressed at things…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)The raw material of language: an interview with Victoria Bean
An Interview with Victoria Bean
Victoria Bean is a visual poet and the co-tutor of our upcoming Online Reading Group, ‘The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century’. Victoria has been working over the last 3 years with Chris McCabe (another Poetry School tutor) to put together a major anthology of new approaches, ideas and techniques being used in visual…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)
The Line Break #4 – Hilary Menos: Carrying Language
THE LINE BREAK EPISODE
Will Barrett (Poetry School)Meet the Digital Poet in Residence: Janette Ayachi
An Interview with Janette Ayachi
Hi Janette! And welcome to CAMPUS. Tell us more about your upcoming residency – ‘The Poet’s Ego: Writers Who Love Writers’ – and what you’ve got planned. Janette: I have been rolling around in that question myself, its seems the more research I do, the more I spiral off on horizontal tangents of the self!…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)