Courses

‘The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep: Articulating Death’

It cannot be expressed with words and it cannot be expressed without words. Wumen Huikai   It is not true that death begins after life. When life stops death also stops. Gösta Ågren translated from the Finland Swedish by David McDuff   I’ve found that poems ‘about death’ tend to actually be about life: about…

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We’re all Doomed: Poetry and the Apocalypse

Can you remember your first apocalypse? Mine was when I was 16 and it took the form of a computer bug that was going to short the electrical supply, mess up everyone’s computer and make aeroplanes fall out of the sky. These predictions tore my attention in half  – at school I was being told…

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Autumn 2015: New Courses and Workshops

Here’s a quick look at what’s on offer for our Autumn Term (beginning 14 September 2015). To find out about a particular course or tutor, follow the title links or call us to enquire on 0207 582 1679. If you’d like to print out a copy of our brochure to look through at home, you can…

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A Long Drink for a Hot Day: an Interview with Holly Hopkins

An Interview with Holly Hopkins

As the Summer days draw out, and the festivals, parties, barbeques and celebrations continue, Holly Hopkins will be inviting students to look at some of the best booze-inspired poetry – and to create some of their own – on her Summer School workshop ‘A Long Drink for a Hot Day’ . We caught up with…

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Surprised by Joy: an Interview with Dai George

An Interview with Dai George

In his Summer School workshop ‘Surprised by Joy’ this term, Dai George will be exploring the challenges and possibilities of writing from feelings of happiness, wonder and joy. We had a chat to find out more  … Hello Dai – tell us about your Summer workshop. What do you have planned? It’s called ‘Surprised by…

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Celebrate Your History: an Interview with Nick Field

An Interview with Nick Field

How can poetry express the joys, sensations and narratives of shared celebrations? In his new Summer School workshop ‘Celebrate Your History’, artist and writer Nick Field will be working with students to use autobiography to create powerful, joyful poems. We caught up with Nick to find out more… Hi Nick! Tell us a bit about…

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A Festival of Opposing Forces: Interview with R A Villanueva

An Interview with R A Villanueva

R A Villanueva’s upcoming Summer workshop, ‘A Festival of Opposing Forces’, will be a celebration of unlike things, thinking about poems as spaces to memorialize, illuminate, and make new. We caught up with the poet and asked him a few questions about what the day will have in store… Tell us more about your Summer…

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Call and Response: an Interview with Rishi Dastidar

An Interview with Rishi Dastidar

As part of our festival themed Summer School this July, poet Rishi Dastidar will be running ‘Call and Response’, a workshop based around writing poetry from music. We caught up with Rishi to find out more … Hi Rishi! Tell us a bit more about your Summer School workshop, Call and Response – what do…

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Festival Season: A Glimpse at our Summer School

Our Summer School is designed so that students can fit in one last blast of poetry writing before the holidays: for a whole week in July, we’ll be running a series of workshops, some for a full day, some for the morning or the afternoon, so that you can fit them in around your packing…

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Keep On: an Interview with Clare Shaw

An Interview with Clare Shaw

Starting on Thursday 11 June in Manchester, ‘Keep On’ will help poets at any level who are in need of a little fuel and maintenance to keep writing. We had a chat with tutor Clare Shaw about the upcoming course, and her thoughts on what to do when the poems aren’t coming … Hi Clare!…

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Epiphanies and Other Movable Feasts: an Interview with Nichola Deane

An Interview with Nichola Deane

Part of our festival themed Summer School this July, Nichola Deane’s workshop Epiphanies and Other Movable Feasts will look at the ‘architecture of moments’ that make up our lives. We caught up with Nichola to find out more about what she has planned… Hi Nichola, tell us more about your workshop…what’s it all about? ND:…

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‘Poetry Prosthetics or The Six Million Dollar Poet’

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804, and died in 1864. He wrote novels and short stories, most notably The Scarlet Letter, and The House of Seven Gables. Written in 1851, when Hawthorne was at the peak of his creative powers, The House of Seven Gables is a Gothic story about an awkward spinster named Hepzibah,…

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Poetry School One Day Workshops

…Booked your holiday yet? If your summer’s filling up and you can’t quite wangle a ten week course into your schedule, a one day workshop or evening class might fit the bill: for a short burst of poetry writing before you jet away, here are a few details of what’s on offer … Crossing the…

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In Praise of Pop

From Tuesday 12 May, Kathryn Gray will be running the Summer Course ‘Alien Vs Predator?’ Poetry and Pop Culture, exploring what happens when the two apparently hostile worlds of poetry and pop culture meet … Could you write a great poem about Don Draper? Kathryn writes a few words in praise of pop:   ‘In…

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The Tao of Poetry

Starting on Monday, 4 May, Liane Strauss will be running ‘The Tao of Poetry: An Introduction to the Great Poets of the T’ang and Sung Dynasties’, providing an in-depth study of the great flowering of Classical Chinese poetry and all that contributes to making it feel so contemporary.  Here, Liane put together a few words…

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Love, Death, Art, Time and Nature: an interview with Sarah Corbett

An Interview with Sarah Corbett

Tell us more about your new course, ‘Love, Death, Time, Art and Nature…‘. What brought you to the subject? Sarah: I was asked to do five sessions that would appeal to students at various stages in their development, so my idea was to take five ‘themes’, and to treat each session as a unit in…

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‘The Act of Transformation’

It was only by chance I started reading it at all.  A good friend of mine, the poet David Tait moved to China a couple of years ago and asked me if I would look after some of his poetry books.  I picked them up in a large purple suitcase that now sits in my…

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Chemical Poetry: an interview with Simon Barraclough

An Interview with Simon Barraclough

‘Chemical Poetry: The Periodic Table & Poetry‘ will use the famous periodic table of elements as a springboard and playground for new writing. Fizz, explode, react and toxicate: we spoke to Simon Barraclough about what happens when poetry and chemistry meet. Hi Simon! What’s ‘Philandrium’? SB: Philandrium is a brand new element discovered and analysed…

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Nightwriter: an interview with Tom Chivers

An Interview with Tom Chivers

Hi Tom – your new online course, Nightwriter, is a nocturnal writing course (our very first). What can we expect? And what happens to your poetry brain after dark? Tom: Writing poetry is about making choices. Selecting what to say and what to leave unspoken. I am interested in erasure, the occult, in things unsaid,…

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Mixed Borders Poetry Residencies: an interview with Sarah Hesketh

An Interview with Sarah Hesketh

‘Mixed Borders: Poets in Residence in London Gardens‘, a Poetry School Summer workshop with London Parks and Gardens Trust, will see poets paired up with allotments, garden squares and hidden spaces to propagate their own green and leafy poetry ideas. We had a chat with Sarah Hesketh, poet and Event Manager for London Open Garden…

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‘The Poet as Curator, the Curator as Poet’

A curator [from the Latin curare – to take care of] selects and organizes the items in a collection or exhibition.   In creating a poem, we can follow a similar process, selecting found text and juxtaposing it with new writing to spark fresh meanings and revelations.     Anne Carson has been described as ‘the…

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Playing with History: an interview with Kelley Swain

An Interview with Kelley Swain

Hi Kelley! Could you tell us about your Summer School workshop, ‘Playing with History: Using the Past in Poetry’ – what can we expect? Kelley: “Playing with History” is going to be a full-day workshop, starting at 10:30 and running until 4:30 in the afternoon, with a lunch break. I’m going to start by talking…

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A budding ‘pomance’: an interview with Jacqueline Saphra

An Interview with Jacqueline Saphra

Jacqueline Saphra, one of The Poetry School’s new tutors, talks to us about her new course, ‘Training the Poem’ and takes us through some of her work and methods.

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The blossom front: celebrating Hanami with Fawzia Kane and Louisa Hooper

On Saturday 18 April, Fawzia Kane and Louisa Hooper will be celebrating the Japanese tradition of Hanami, or ‘flower viewing’, with a blossom-fueled poetry workshop at the Brogdale Collections… Louisa: It hardly seems it, but it’s more than a quarter of a century since I sat beneath the avenue of flowering cherries by the great…

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‘Viciousness in the Kitchen!’ – reading Plath’s Ariel(s)

When I think of most poets, I think of individual poems. Say Auden and I think: ‘As I Walked out one Evening’, for Larkin ‘Aubade’, for Bishop ‘One Art’. I honestly couldn’t name which individual collections any of these poems were in. Say Sylvia Plath though and I, like most people, would immediately think: Ariel. It’s…

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