Our poetry downloads are a great and affordable way to work through ideas and exercises by yourself at your own pace. There are several complete courses available for you to download, and a large variety of shorter downloads, all aimed at key aspects of improving your writing and professional development.
As of 2018, we changing our existing downloadable courses and workshops, and are working towards a new programme. In the meantime, please explore our free Lucky Dip lessons, below.
Downloads – short for ‘downloadable courses’ – are essentially small e-books, each around 30 pages. Each of our Downloads provides in-depth advice on an area of poetic practice, broken into ten lessons or more, with exercises and coursework for you to do at home.
With every order you receive not only your downloadable course as a PDF, but you’ll also be given access to a unique group on CAMPUS where you can interact with other people who also taking the same course, and exchange ideas, tips, and suggestions, as well as offering supportive comments on each other’s work.
If you are looking for a shorter burst of inspiration, then try something from our Lucky Dip Lessons, a free archive of short downloads from our most creative tutors. Usually one or two pages of concentrated and specific advice about a particular area of craft or inspiration, Lucky Dip Lessons are perfect for breaking open new ideas over a Sunday afternoon or slow commute home.
Here are the lessons we currently have available. Click through each to view and download.
GETTING GOING
The Art of the Notebook by John Siddique
TECHNICAL TIPS
Titles by Tamar Yoseloff
Moving From the Abstract to the Concrete by Neil Rollinson
Using Dialect in Your Poems by Liz Berry
Hey Presto! Metaphors and Similes by Katy Evans-Bush
The Line-Break by John Mateer
Working Your Verbs by Clare Pollard
VERSE FORMS
The Tritina by Tamar Yoseloff
The Refrain by Paul Batchelor
The Cento by Linda Black
Taking Time Out: Learning from the Earliest Poetry in English by John Greening
Poems, Letters and Letter Poems by Emily Berry
Short Poems by A B Jackson
SUBJECT MATTER
Walking the City by Chris McCabe
Poetry and Comics by Chrissy Williams
What If, Who Says: Rewriting History by Hannah Lowe
Using History in Your Poems by John McCollough
Chance & The Random: Tools to Energise the Imagination by Penelope Shuttle
Collaborations by Tamar Yoseloff
Beating Writer’s Block by Tamar Yoseloff
Poetry is Dead, Long Live Poetry! by Emma Hammond
GETTING YOUR WORK OUT
On Poetry Competitions by George Szirtes
Memorising Pieces For Performance by Inua Ellams
Submitting to Poetry Magazines by Julia Bird