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Review: ‘Landfill’ by John Wedgwood Clarke
We think that once we throw something away it vanishes, and John Wedgwood Clarke’s poems play with that notion and show us how mistaken we are. Reading Landfill, Wedgwood Clarke’s latest collection and the product of a year spent as poet-in-residence at two refuse centres near York and Scarborough, I was struck by something inspiring…
Richie McCaffery
We’re moving!
The Poetry School is delighted to announce that we are moving to 1 Dock Offices, Surrey Quays Road, Canada Water, SE16 2XU. From the beginning of the Summer Term, our offices and London classrooms will move to this historic Grade II listed building, located just 2 minutes walk…
Poetry School
Summer 2018 Courses Quick Guide
The Summer 2018 Term is now open for booking! We are delighted to open the booking period for the final term of our 20th anniversary year at the Poetry School. Remember that new students get 15% off all courses, just give us a call to get your discount! Concessions are available, and applications for bursaries –…
Ali Lewis
Review: ‘Brood’ by Rhian Edwards
Rhian Edwards’ eagerly anticipated pamphlet, Brood, is as compact as a bird’s nest, haunting as a folk song, and as brooding as the title suggests. Brood explores the fragilities of the nuclear family and each line bristles with the channelled focus of a magpie. It is short, even for a pamphlet, with only fourteen poems….
Maria Apichella
Review: ‘The Mains’ by Patrick Davidson Roberts
The Mains (Vanguard Editions) is a long, dark night of the soul and is not the place for studied scenes of domestic strife or costive little elegies. The reader coming to these poems for the first time might well be thrown by them; their aesthetic is jagged, frantic, and elliptical. One thing to bear in mind is that…
Richie McCaffery
Rules Were Made to be Broken
Despite the title I have chosen for this workshop, rules in poetry are not necessarily a bad thing. Anyone thinking of entering a poetry competition for the first time, for instance, would do well to read Fleur Adcock’s hilarious ‘The prize-winning poem’, which gives a very clear idea of the kinds of things that are…
David Clarke
Poetry School and Poet Paul Stephenson to Curate Poetry in Aldeburgh 2018
The Poetry School and Poetry in Aldeburgh are delighted to announce that the 2018 Poetry in Aldeburgh Festival will be curated by the Poetry School and the poet Paul Stephenson. The three-day festival will take place on the weekend of 2nd-4th November, 2018 and feature readings, workshops, films, and more from internationally-renowned poets. With…
Poetry School
Review: ‘Hello. Your Promise Has Been Extracted’ by Ahren Warner
Though you might not recognise it, history is here again. They say the European project is coming apart, and I suppose time will tell. In the meantime, the least an artist can do is to try to bear witness. A wave is crashing over this century as it crashed over the last, and while there…
Humphrey Astley
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)
Poetry School Christmas Sale – 25% Off Selected Courses!
Treat yourself or a friend with 25% off a selection of our Spring short courses in Manchester, Exeter, Bristol and London. Just use the code PUDDING at the checkout stage online to receive your discount! ❄ Digital Poetry with Maya Chowdhry (Manchester) – Was £90, Now £67.50 🎁 The Poetry of Rubbish with John Wedgwood…
Poetry School
‘Letting Your Avant-Garde Down’ – An Interview with Caleb Parkin
Ahead of his new course in Bristol, Letting Your Avant-Garde Down, we spoke to this year’s National Poetry Competition second prize winner Caleb Parkin. Ali Lewis: Hi Caleb! You’re running a new five-week course with us called Letting Your Avant-Garde Down. Can you tell us a bit about it? Caleb Parkin: The term ‘avant-garde’ is a…
Ali Lewis
‘The Emptiness of Things’
I pour you into notebooks, stacking them on my nightstand next to the clock, candle, matches– hoping the emptiness of things will rub off on you. Ripping out pages, I burn them one by one, only to discover you’ve settled in corners and on dishes and found your way into the spines of books. Across…
Jen Smat
‘The Park’
In matching green anoraks, rain or shine, they walk here every morning, she a little taller than he, leaning on his arm, three times clockwise round the park, keeping themselves to themselves, keeping to the path by the railings where once they saw a gang of young offenders plant daffodils; admire the clumps of…
Margot Myers
How I Did It: Michael Marks Award Special – Alyson Hallett on ‘crossing the sound’
Ahead of the Awards ceremony on Thursday 12th December, The Poetry School has asked the five poets shortlisted for this year’s Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets to discuss the writing process behind a poem from their award-nominated work. So far, Theophilus Kwek, Charlotte Wetton, Phoebe Stuckes and Omikemi Natacha Bryan have talked about their poems. In today’s final instalment –…
Alyson Hallett
How I Did It: Michael Marks Award Special – Omikemi Natacha Bryan on ‘Salt’
Ahead of the Awards ceremony on Thursday 12th December, The Poetry School has asked the five poets shortlisted for this year’s Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets to discuss the writing process behind a poem from their award-nominated work. So far, Theophilus Kwek, Charlotte Wetton, and Phoebe Stuckes have talked about their poems; today, Omikemi…
Omikemi Natacha Bryan
The Poetry of Rubbish: Interview with John Wedgwood Clarke
Next term, John Wedgwood Clarke will be teaching The Poetry of Rubbish, a five-session course in Exeter. Harriet David, an Oxford masters student who spent a week researching at The Poetry School, spoke to John about the course. Harriet: Hi John. You spent two years as poet in residence at two Yorkshire rubbish sites;…
Harriet David
‘Ice Storm’
Shuffling to the bus stop with the boyfriend who’d cut his visit short, cracked plastic wheels of his cheap suitcase juddering on the ice, I clutched at his coat sleeve and missed. Chin grazed, that deep-freeze smell up my nose, gloveless hands stinging. Close up: thousands of bubbles, suspended in ice. Beneath the cloudy layers,…
Nadia Arbach
How I Did It: Michael Marks Award Special – Phoebe Stuckes on ‘Mad Chicks Cool’
Ahead of the Awards ceremony on Thursday 12th December, The Poetry School has asked the five poets shortlisted for this year’s Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets to discuss the writing process behind a poem from their award-nominated work. So far, Theophilus Kwek and Charlotte Wetton have talked about their poems; today, Phoebe Stuckes shares the inspiration behind…
Phoebe Stuckes
On Writing Your Body, Outside In
What a strange thing it is to inhabit this gummy, flexible, porous, resilient, terrifying, exhilarating vessel from which we have no escape. Take a deep breath. Four seconds in (count them), and four seconds out (count them). What a different thing it is to purposefully concentrate on the one act we’ve done continuously since birth,…
Khairani Barokka
How I Did It: Michael Marks Award Special – Charlotte Wetton on ‘The Archivist’s House’
Ahead of the Awards ceremony on Thursday 12th December, The Poetry School has asked the five poets shortlisted for this year’s Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets to discuss the writing process behind a poem from their award-nominated work. Yesterday, Theophilus Kwek wrote about his poem, ‘The Crossing’; today, Charlotte Wetton talks us through her poem ‘The Archivist’s…
Charlotte Wetton
Review: ‘Bear’ by Chrissy Williams
An enormous bear with piercing yellow eyes fills the cover of Chrissy Williams’ first full-length collection; stare for long enough and its neutral expression seems to shift from challenging to friendly to curious to sad, and back. The bear appears again in the opening poem – ‘Bear of the Artist’ – cementing its symbolic significance…
Lucy Winrow
How I Did It: Michael Marks Award Special – Theophilus Kwek on ‘The Crossing’
Ahead of the Awards ceremony on Thursday 12th December, The Poetry School has asked the five poets shortlisted for this year’s Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets to discuss the writing process behind a poem from their award-nominated work. First in the series, Theophilus Kwek writes about his poem, ‘The Crossing’. Easter 2015. I am walking with…
Theophilus Kwek
Sarala Estruch, Romalyn Ante and Aviva Dautch Selected for Primers Vol 3
Congratulations to Romalyn Ante, Sarala Estruch and Aviva Dautch, who have been selected for this year’s Primers! Each poet will receive mentoring from Hannah Lowe, editorial support from Jane Commane, and publication in Primers Volume Three with Nine Arches Press! Nine Arches editor and Primers judge, Jane Commane said: “Huge congratulations to our three finalists, and…
Poetry School
Risking forms
One of the best things that a poem can do is that it can unsettle you. It may be a certain strangeness to do with its form or the voice, for instance, that keeps you thinking about what it says. Take, for instance, the creative decision Abigail Parry made, to begin her poem ‘Arterial’ (which…
Jennifer Wong