Face-to-Face Courses

Write more poems

Face-to-face teaching has been at the core of our educational programme since 1997. Running three terms a year both in our London classrooms and regional centres across the UK, our face-to-face courses and workshops have helped countless poets find encouragement for their work and allowed their poetry to flourish.

On our face-to-face courses, a group of students meet on a regular basis with their tutor to read their own work, discuss poetry, and – session by session – develop new skills and confidence as poet. We offer a breadth of approach to learning poetry, with some courses focusing on form and technique, whilst others look to provide inspiration for generating new writing or offer close readings of certain poets or movements.

The longest courses we offer stretch over three terms (general, covering a wide variety of skills and subjects) and the shortest courses we offer are one-day workshops (specific, looking at specialist subjects and techniques).

All our Face-to-Face Courses

When the Bough Breaks: Writing Childhood, Writing Parenthood (Exeter)

£144.00 *

Tutor: Fiona Benson

When the Bough Breaks: Writing Childhood, Writing Parenthood (Exeter)

Produce new poems on the ever-evolving journey of parenting and being parented

Start Date: April 17, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: June 5, 2019 ( 50 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Exeter Community Centre, Exeter

£90.00 *

Tutor: Richard O'Brien

Self, Place, World (Birmingham)

Explore your unique perspective on the world to create new poems

Start Date: April 27, 2019 12pm
End Date: June 29, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Pen Museum, Birmingham

Sold Out!

Tutor: Wayne Holloway-Smith

Pamphlet / Portfolio (Summer 2019)

Take your work to the next level and develop your portfolio

Start Date: April 29, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: July 1, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Shazea Quraishi

The Poet's Toolkit (Summer 2019)

Explore poetry’s inner workings, hone your craft, and look at various techniques to help your poems achieve lift-off

Start Date: April 29, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: July 1, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Tim Dooley and Tamar Yoseloff

The Urban Pastoral (Reading Course)

Stroll the streets and contemplate nature’s role in the life of cities

Start Date: April 30, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: July 2, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Total Syntax: A Crash Course in Grammar, Diction & Phrasemaking

£90.00 *

Tutor: Dai George

Total Syntax: A Crash Course in Grammar, Diction & Phrasemaking

Explode the envelope of language to understand syntax, fragmentation, grammar and constraint

Start Date: April 30, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: June 25, 2019 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Summer 2019)

£171.00 *

Tutor: Tim Dooley

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Summer 2019)

A weekly workshop for poets looking to develop their individual voice and technique, run by the inimitable Tim Dooley

Start Date: May 1, 2019 2pm
End Date: July 10, 2019 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

Poem, Prompt, Pick & Mix (Summer 2019)

Mix up your writing and learn new skills and techniques with Jacqueline Saphra

Start Date: May 1, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: July 3, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Summer 2019)

Sold Out!

Tutor: Mark Waldron

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Summer 2019)

Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop with Mark Waldron

Start Date: May 1, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: July 3, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Space, Time: Writing Long Poems & Sequences

£90.00 *

Tutor: Helen Charman

Space, Time: Writing Long Poems & Sequences

Investigate the structural elements of 40 lines or more

Start Date: May 2, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: June 27, 2019 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Meryl Pugh

First Encounters (Summer 2019)

Take your first steps into the world of poetry!

Start Date: May 2, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: July 4, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price (Summer 2019)

£171.00 *

Tutor: Richard Price

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price (Summer 2019)

Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop

Start Date: May 3, 2019 11am
End Date: July 5, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£90.00 *

Tutor: Will Harris

Un-Canon/Ca-NON

Explode the established literary canon, and unearth new multiplicities

Start Date: May 7, 2019 6.45pm
End Date: June 27, 2019 ( 52 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests Tues AM (Summer 2019)

Sold Out!

Tutor: Kathryn Maris

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests Tues AM (Summer 2019)

One of our flagship advanced workshops, with the added perk of special guests each term.

Start Date: May 7, 2019 11am
End Date: July 9, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests Thurs PM (Summer 2019)

Sold Out!

Tutor: Kathryn Maris

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests Thurs PM (Summer 2019)

One of our flagship advanced workshops, with the added perk of special guests each term

Start Date: May 9, 2019 2pm
End Date: July 11, 2019 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Michael Schmidt

Out for the Count: Syllabics

Work on ‘syllabicising’ poems of your own

Start Date: May 25, 2019 10.30am
End Date: May 25, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Linda Gregerson

Poetic Yield: Masterclass

Take a masterclass in rigorously rewriting and revising your poems

Start Date: June 1, 2019 10.30am
End Date: June 1, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£80.00

Tutor: Linda Gregerson

Poetry Surgery with Linda Gregerson

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Linda Gregerson

Start Date: June 4, 2019
End Date: June 4, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

WRITE AHEAD: Free Introductory Workshop (Friday 7 June 2019)

Sold Out!

Tutor: Theresa Lola

WRITE AHEAD: Free Introductory Workshop (Friday 7 June 2019)

Want to be a poet? Go Write Ahead.

Start Date: June 7, 2019 7pm
End Date: June 7, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£144.00 *

Tutor: Lucy Mercer

Divine Messengers

Open your poems to the perceptive power of dreams

Start Date: June 8, 2019 10.30am
End Date: June 9, 2019 ( 2 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Sold Out!

Tutor: Hugo Williams

Poetry Surgery with Hugo Williams

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Hugo Williams

Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 15, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Laura Scott

Feel the Fear & Write It Anyway

Take the plunge into the difficult, the dangerous and the daunting

Start Date: June 15, 2019 10.30am
End Date: June 15, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Sold Out!

Tutor: Ilya Kaminsky

Poetry Surgery with Ilya Kaminsky

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Ilya Kaminsky

Start Date: June 22, 2019
End Date: June 22, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Rishi Dastidar

For the Win: The Poetry of Sport

From casual kick-around to serious competition, let adrenaline and athleticism activate your poems

Start Date: June 22, 2019 10.30am
End Date: June 22, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Meeting with Microbes: A Ginkgo Prize Workshop for National Writing Day

£0.00

Tutor: Daisy Lafarge

Meeting with Microbes: A Ginkgo Prize Workshop for National Writing Day

Encounter an ecopoetics of entanglement with bacterial and microbial worlds in this free Ginkgo Prize workshop for National Writing Day.

Start Date: June 26, 2019 18:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Hill Street Design House, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Plant Whispering: A Ginkgo Prize Workshop for National Writing Day

£0.00

Tutor: Jade Cuttle

Plant Whispering: A Ginkgo Prize Workshop for National Writing Day

Investigate the fruitful crossover of poetry and plants in this free Ginkgo Prize workshop to celebrate National Writing Day

Start Date: June 26, 2019 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

The Carer: Poetry of Private & Public Spaces

£72.00 *

Tutor: Denise Saul

The Carer: Poetry of Private & Public Spaces

How can we reliably provide voices to care-givers and the cared-for?

Start Date: June 29, 2019 10.30am
End Date: June 29, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Another Republic: Learning from Different Traditions

£72.00 *

Tutor: Ilya Kaminsky

Another Republic: Learning from Different Traditions

A special one-day workshop with Ilya Kaminsky

Start Date: July 2, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 2, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Isabel Galleymore

The Strange Stranger: Animal Poetics

Cultivate creaturely thinking and fathom the human-animal experience

Start Date: July 6, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 6, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

FREE WORKSHOP: A mountain that is your grief you can’t utter

£0.00

Tutor: Helen Calcutt

FREE WORKSHOP: A mountain that is your grief you can’t utter

A free workshop exploring trauma and grief

Start Date: July 6, 2019 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Hydro Lyric: Water & the Self in Contemporary Poetry

£35.00 *

Tutor: Samantha Walton

Hydro Lyric: Water & the Self in Contemporary Poetry

What does it mean to think, write and co-exist with water? Explore how we relate to each other through this most primal element, and experiment with writing your own hydro-lyrics.

Start Date: July 15, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 15, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Inua Ellams

Poetry & Profanity

Get profane with Inua Ellams to learn how four letter expletives can actually enrich your writing.

Start Date: July 15, 2019 2.00pm
End Date: July 15, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Problematic Poets: Interrogating our Influences

£35.00 *

Tutor: Anthony Anaxagorou

Problematic Poets: Interrogating our Influences

Is the author really dead? Consider what there is to learn from historical poets who would fall below the ethical standards of today.

Start Date: July 16, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 16, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Jamie McKendrick

Beyond the Literal: Poetry Translation

Push beyond the ‘literal’ with Jamie McKendrick to get first-hand experience of poetry translation

Start Date: July 16, 2019 2.00pm
End Date: July 16, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Tim Atkins

Constraints & Play

Get playful with Tim Atkins and learn how ludic games and constraints can enrich your writing.

Start Date: July 17, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 17, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Unpacking the Six Pack: Writing Masculinity, Sport & Body Image

£35.00 *

Tutor: Lewis Buxton

Unpacking the Six Pack: Writing Masculinity, Sport & Body Image

Bro, do you even lyric? Debunk received ideas on masculinity and get your poems buff.

Start Date: July 17, 2019 2.00pm
End Date: July 17, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Vanishing Point: Personae & Perspective?

£35.00 *

Tutor: Emily Critchley

Vanishing Point: Personae & Perspective?

Break out of the first person and create dynamic poems from new perspectives

Start Date: July 18, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 18, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Karen McCarthy Woolf

A Love Supreme: Music as Muse & Mentor

Explore poetry’s relationship with music to push your work into fresh and unexpected directions.

Start Date: July 18, 2019 2.00pm
End Date: July 18, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Francesca Lisette

Draw Down The Stars

Work with astrological archetypes for poetic insight and liberation

Start Date: July 19, 2019 10.30am
End Date: July 19, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Sophie Robinson

Poetry as Alchemy

Pen your Magnum Opus as you transmute the lead of the everyday into poetic gold.

Start Date: July 19, 2019 2.00pm
End Date: July 19, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

WRITE AHEAD: Free Introductory Workshop (Friday 27 September 2019)

£0.00

Tutor: Joey Connolly

WRITE AHEAD: Free Introductory Workshop (Friday 27 September 2019)

Want to be a poet? Go Write Ahead.

Start Date: September 27, 2019 7pm
End Date: September 27, 2019 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Show 35 More

HOW FACE-TO-FACE WORKS

Tutor and students sit round a large table for a typical Poetry School course session or workshop and the meetings are friendly and relatively informal.

In each session, you might be given Exercises (specific writing tasks to inspire your own poems or ideas) or Feedback (comments on your work by tutors and / or other students); you might be Reading (close attention to published poems, looking for examples of technique, style, theme or form), Writing (working towards creating new poems throughout the duration of the course or workshop) or a combination of all these. Some courses will include tasks for you to complete at home.

Our face to face courses are designed to suit all levels of experience: some activities are open to all, and others are structured with beginner, intermediate or advanced poets specifically in mind. Similarly, our activities aim to offer a breadth of approach to learning poetry, with some focusing on form and technique, whilst others look to provide inspiration for your writing.

WHAT WILL I LEARN?

Content will vary course to course, but on all our face-to-face courses you can expect the following:

reading, writing and thinking about poetry in different ways
exposure to new writers, voices, forms and styles
the confidence to write more and devote more time to writing
generating new work
discovery of new areas and subjects for research
better understanding of how to make choices (length, theme, tone, etc)
enhanced critical skills
practical advice on further development

Many of our teaching poets are also performers, makers and artists, as well as teachers, and like to teach more than just poetry in their classes. One of the great advantages of face-to-face teaching is that is doesn’t always have to happen in a classroom. From time to time, we also like to run workshops where as well as writing poems, you might be going on a walking tour, exploring a priceless archive, painting pictures, eating exotic foods, making theatre props or even swimming in the wild.

We pride ourselves on the standard of our teaching and the poetry produced on every one of our courses. Many of our students have gone on to successfully submit their course work for publication in magazines and journals, and had success in competitions. But don’t take it from us: read some of our many student testimonials.

COURSE FORMATS

Generally speaking we offer 3 main types of face-to-face course:

LONG COURSES are more than 10 weeks and run over several terms. All our long courses start in the Autumn, but can be joined mid-way (subject to availability). Long courses are quite general and will encompass a large variety of ideas and techniques suitable for particular skill levels.

SHORT COURSES are commonly 10 weeks or less, once a term, with regular sessions running weekly or fortnightly. Short courses tend to focus on a particular subject, theme, form or technical aspect of poetry, often open to all levels.

WORKSHOPS are weekend, one or half day sessions. One day workshops are intensive writing and learning experiences that last 5 hours (with an additional 1 hour lunch break).

If you’re unsure which class, level, or style of course might be best for you, you can contact our administration team on administration@poetryschool.com for help with any course queries you might have.

FAQ

The activity I want is fully booked – what can I do?

Lost property?

Lost property will be kept in the office at 81 Lambeth Walk. Please call or email us if you believe you have left something in the classrooms.

What should I do if I can’t make a class session?

What is your refunds policy?

If you cannot attend a course a full refund will be made as long as cancellation is received four weeks before the course start date. After this period, we are only able to give you a refund if the course has sold out and we are able to fill your place. Refunds cannot be given if you were unable to attend a course or did not log on to the online chats. Please read our Terms & Conditions for more information.

How do I teach for the Poetry School?

Please send us details of your publication record and teaching experience and the ideas you have for courses and workshops you'd like to teach. If your ideas for the programme are a fit for ours, we will start to make joint plans. Download this 'Teaching for the Poetry School for the First Time' hand out which might be useful.

All our Face-to-Face Courses

HOW FACE-TO-FACE WORKS

WHAT WILL I LEARN?

COURSE FORMATS

FAQ

The activity I want is fully booked – what can I do?

Lost property?

What should I do if I can’t make a class session?

What is your refunds policy?

How do I teach for the Poetry School?

Find a Course