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

Joy in the Detail: Editing as a Creative Process

£95.00 *

Tutor: Jane Commane

Joy in the Detail: Editing as a Creative Process

Develop your critical confidence and acquire a veritable poet’s toolkit of skills to become your best self-editor with the editor-in-chief at Nine Arches Press.

Start Date: February 15, 2020 12pm
End Date: May 9, 2020 ( 85 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: The Pen Museum, Birmingham

£95.00 *

Tutor: Jonathan Edwards

"The Wild"

Take a walk on the wild side to explore the extraordinary power that animals can bring into your poems.

Start Date: February 22, 2020 12pm
End Date: May 9, 2020 ( 78 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Hours, Bristol

£150.00 *

Tutor: Antosh Wojcik

Soundtext Weekender

An immersive weekender of sound experimentation and text generation.

Start Date: March 21, 2020 10.30am
End Date: March 22, 2020 ( 2 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Sold Out!

Tutor: Liz Berry

Try a Little Tenderness: Masterclass

If we must first write from the heart in order to write poems for the heart, how do we begin this tender work?

Start Date: March 28, 2020 10.30am
End Date: March 28, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£100.00 *

Tutor: Ben See and Guest Tutors

Where Words Meet Music

Put a spring in your step with this brand new 6-week course exploring the relationship between words and music.

Start Date: April 7, 2020 7–9.30pm
End Date: May 12, 2020 ( 36 Days )
Type: Events, Face-to-Face • Location:

£150.00 *

Tutor: Hannah Lowe

X-Lit: Ways into Memoir

An intensive weekend exploring life writing with acclaimed poet and memoirist Hannah Lowe.

Start Date: April 18, 2020 10.30am
End Date: April 19, 2020 ( 2 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

This Goes There, That Comes After: List Poems

£75.00 *

Tutor: James Davies

This Goes There, That Comes After: List Poems

Get things in order and explore the many uses of the list form with James Davies.

Start Date: April 18, 2020 10.30am
End Date: April 18, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Poetry School, London

£95.00

Tutor: Seán Hewitt

Poetry Surgery with Seán Hewitt

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Seán Hewitt

Start Date: April 24, 2020
End Date: April 24, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Summer 2020)

£180.00 *

Tutor: Mark Waldron

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Summer 2020)

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

Start Date: May 6, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: July 8, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Sold Out!

Tutor: Meryl Pugh

First Encounters (Summer 2020)

Take your first steps into the world of poetry!

Start Date: May 7, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: July 9, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

May the Verse be with You: Poetry Inspired by Star Wars

£75.00 *

Tutor: Chrissy Williams

May the Verse be with You: Poetry Inspired by Star Wars

Odes to the moon are something of a poetic cliché these days. But is the same true when that moon is a space station...?

Start Date: May 9, 2020 10.30am
End Date: May 9, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£95.00 *

Tutor: Liz Berry

Transformative Poetry

Transform yourself and the world around you through the power of poetry.

Start Date: May 9, 2020 12pm
End Date: July 18, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Pen Museum, Birmingham

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests (Summer 2020)

£180.00 *

Tutor: Kathryn Maris

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests (Summer 2020)

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

Start Date: May 11, 2020 2.00pm
End Date: July 20, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£180.00 *

Tutor: Wayne Holloway-Smith

What Now? (Summer 2020)

Take the next steps in your poetry career and explore contemporary poetry’s cutting-edge

Start Date: May 11, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: July 13, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£180.00 *

Tutor: Shazea Quraishi

The Poet’s Toolkit (Summer 2020)

Hone your craft, explore poetry’s inner workings, and look at techniques to help your poems achieve lift-off

Start Date: May 11, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: July 20, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£95.00 *

Tutor: Jennie Osborne

Voices of the Sea

Join us on a voyage into the blue, as we dive to the Marianas Trench, spot white whales, and attempt to clean up the Pacific trash vortex.

Start Date: May 12, 2020 7pm
End Date: July 7, 2020 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Exeter Community Centre, Exeter

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Summer 2020)

£180.00 *

Tutor: Tim Dooley

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Summer 2020)

Tim Dooley’s weekly workshop for poets looking to develop their individual voice and technique

Start Date: May 13, 2020 2.00pm
End Date: July 15, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£180.00 *

Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

Creative Constraint (Summer 2020)

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

Start Date: May 13, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: July 15, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£75.00 *

Tutor: Eleanor Penny

Out of the Wreckage

Come root in Davy Jones’s locker for nautical inspiration, exploring wreckage, ghost ships, and missing histories.

Start Date: May 16, 2020 10.30am
End Date: May 16, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber (Summer 2020)

£177.00 *

Tutor: Ros Barber

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber (Summer 2020)

Monthly all-day Saturday workshops with Ros Barber.

Start Date: May 16, 2020 10.30am
End Date: July 11, 2020 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£95.00 *

Tutor: Becky Varley-Winter

The Many Voices of Poetry

Examine poetry’s many different voices to see how your own can shift, change and fluctuate for different effects.

Start Date: May 21, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: July 16, 2020 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price (Summer 2020)

£180.00 *

Tutor: Richard Price

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price (Summer 2020)

Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop

Start Date: May 22, 2020 11.00am
End Date: July 24, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£75.00 *

Tutor: Ali Lewis

Stealing, Copying, & Arguing

Get light-fingered and argumentative with other artists to take your own writing to new places.

Start Date: May 23, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: May 23, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£95.00

Tutor: Linda Gregerson

Poetry Surgery with Linda Gregerson

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

Start Date: May 29, 2020
End Date: May 29, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Lying Holds the Pleasure / of Ruining a Form

£75.00 *

Tutor: Elaine Kahn

Lying Holds the Pleasure / of Ruining a Form

Engage in lies and deceit to push poetic forms beyond their limits and unlock the explosive power of your writing.

Start Date: May 30, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: May 30, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

’The Ladder is always There’ – What makes a Feminist Poem?

£95.00 *

Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

’The Ladder is always There’ – What makes a Feminist Poem?

Spend June reading and discussing a huge range of feminist poetry. Expect to be surprised, infuriated, and inspired.

Start Date: June 2, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: June 30, 2020 ( 29 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£75.00 *

Tutor: Meena Kandasamy

Writing Love in a Second Language

Explore the effects of living, and writing, between multiple languages.

Start Date: June 6, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: June 6, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

‘The Gaps Between the Stories’: White Space, Redaction, & Erasure

£75.00 *

Tutor: Tamar Yoseloff

‘The Gaps Between the Stories’: White Space, Redaction, & Erasure

Explore visual techniques and play with omissions, erasure, and negative space to expand your poetic practice.

Start Date: June 13, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: June 13, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Euphony: Poetic Sound & the Subconscious

£75.00 *

Tutor: Martha Sprackland

Euphony: Poetic Sound & the Subconscious

Listen to your poems’ concerto of sounds as a way to explore their subconscious drives.

Start Date: June 20, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: June 20, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Sold Out!

Tutor: Mary Jean Chan

Poetry Surgery with Mary Jean Chan

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Mary Jean Chan

Start Date: June 26, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Fighting the Tyrant: A Political & Personal Weekend

£150.00 *

Tutor: Leah Umansky

Fighting the Tyrant: A Political & Personal Weekend

Move between the personal and political to explore the power of poetry in fighting tyrants.

Start Date: June 27, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: June 28, 2020 ( 2 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£95.00

Tutor: Leah Umansky

Poetry Surgery with Leah Umansky

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Leah Umansky

Start Date: July 1, 2020
End Date: July 1, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

£150.00 *

Tutor: sjfowler

The Language Art: Modern Art & Poetry

Explore the intersections between the post-war traditions of modern art and avant-garde poetry.

Start Date: July 11, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: July 12, 2020 ( 2 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Magic Weekender: the Poet as Seer, Witch, & Shaman

£150.00 *

Tutor: Sascha Akhtar

Magic Weekender: the Poet as Seer, Witch, & Shaman

Explore ancient notions in contemporary times and write new poems as a seer, magi, witch, healer, and shaman.

Start Date: July 18, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: July 19, 2020 ( 2 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Poetry School, London

Show 28 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 [email protected] 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