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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, around 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

£90.00 *

Tutor: Fiona Hamilton

Bristol Poetry Studio

Fiona Hamilton's Poetry Studio returns to Bristol for another year of feedback, writing and inspiration.

Start Date: April 20, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Hamilton House, Bristol

Sold Out!

Tutor: Saradha Soobrayen

The Pamphleteers

Consider the challenges, practical 'nuts and bolts' and decision-making processes in putting together your own pamphlet publication.

Start Date: May 4, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop (Monday Afternoons)

£171.00 *

Tutor: Matthew Caley

Advanced Poetry Workshop (Monday Afternoons)

An afternoon timeslot for one of our inspiring Advanced Poetry Workshops.

Start Date: May 8, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Various Tutors

The Construction of the Poem

A rotating line-up of special guest tutors teach you how to construct a poem.

Start Date: May 8, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Ellen Cranitch

Fresh Approaches

New approaches to writing poetry, looking at contemporary and less familiar work to inspire your own writing.

Start Date: May 8, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Tamar Yoseloff

Routes into Poetry

For beginner writers who want to explore some definitions of poetry; and to start some structured learning about rhyme, metre, verse forms, lineation and stanzas.

Start Date: May 9, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Mario Petrucci

16 Ways of Writing a Poem

An innovative and in-depth masterclass looking at (virtually) every way a poem can come into being.

Start Date: May 9, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Tim Dooley

Poetry: Shaping a Style

Define your goals as a writer and develop an individual body of work in the third of Tim Dooley's courses.

Start Date: May 9, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests

Sold Out!

Tutor: Kathryn Maris

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests

One of our flagship advanced workshops, with the benefit of special guests.

Start Date: May 10, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Advanced Poetry Workshop (Wednesday Evenings)

£171.00 *

Tutor: Matthew Caley

Advanced Poetry Workshop (Wednesday Evenings)

Develop your work-in-progress through discussion and feedback in an advanced workshop.

Start Date: May 10, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£171.00 *

Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

Training the Poem

For intermediate poets looking to develop their writing through experimentation, play and close-readings.

Start Date: May 10, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£90.00 *

Tutor: Sarah Corbett

Poetry and Art

Open up new channels in your writing and explore how poems can enter into conversation with works of art.

Start Date: May 10, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Friends' Meeting House, Manchester

Sold Out!

Tutor: Various Tutors

Intermediate Poetry Workshop

A weekly workshop for poets looking to develop their individual voice and technique.

Start Date: May 11, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£90.00 *

Tutor: Fiona Benson

Ecopoetry

Take a walk on the wild side and explore the diverse world of contemporary nature and eco-poetry with Fiona Benson

Start Date: May 11, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Exeter Community Centre, Exeter

£177.00 *

Tutor: Ros Barber

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber

Monthly all-day Saturday workshops with Ros Barber.

Start Date: May 13, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£90.00 *

Tutor: Inua Ellams

#Afterhours

Discuss, dissect and explore various ways into counter and companion poems with Inua Ellams.

Start Date: May 18, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£90.00 *

Tutor: Karen Whiteson

Tales of the Globe

Take a whirlwind tour of tales, myths and folk stories.

Start Date: May 18, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£144.00 *

Tutor: John McCullough

Ransacking the Museum

Ransack the Natural History Museum for metaphors and allegories before incorporating its exhibits into new poems of your own.

Start Date: May 27, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

New Definitions and Neologisms: The Poetry of Dictionaries

£72.00 *

Tutor: Kate Potts

New Definitions and Neologisms: The Poetry of Dictionaries

Explore poetry’s collision with the dictionary and re-make language for your own purposes.

Start Date: June 24, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Masterclass with Patricia Smith and Malika Booker

Sold Out!

Tutor: Patricia Smith and Malika Booker

Masterclass with Patricia Smith and Malika Booker

Learn what it takes to write poetry which speaks in an authentic voice.

Start Date: July 1, 2017 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Fiona Hamilton

Poetry and World Events

Write poems that attend to ‘big changes’ on the world stage with Fiona Hamilton in this one-day workshop in Bristol.

Start Date: July 8, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Hours, Bristol

Sold Out!

Tutor: Linda Gregerson

The Poetic Line

Examine various ways of using the poetic line and try some hands-on lineation exercises in this 1-day workshop.

Start Date: July 8, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Saturday Session with Ann and Peter Sansom (July 2017)

£59.00 *

Tutor: Peter Sansom

Saturday Session with Ann and Peter Sansom (July 2017)

Three all-day workshop sessions with the Sansoms in Manchester.

Start Date: July 22, 2017
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street., Manchester

£35.00 *

Tutor: Rishi Dastidar

The Minimum Viable Poem

Explore the big world of small poems with Rishi Dastidar

Start Date: July 24, 2017 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Kayo Chingonyi

Making a Mess

Seek out failure, mess, and happy accidents in your writing with Kayo Chingonyi

Start Date: July 24, 2017 14:00
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

If You Don’t Have Any Shadows You're Not in the Light

£35.00 *

Tutor: Penelope Shuttle

If You Don’t Have Any Shadows You're Not in the Light

Take shadowy inspiration from Lady Gaga and learn about poetic light with Penelope Shuttle.

Start Date: July 25, 2017 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Penelope Shuttle

Bird in the Hand: Proverbial

Explore the condensed and memorable phrases of proverbs with Penelope Shuttle and learn how these can open doors into new writing.

Start Date: July 25, 2017 14:00
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Raymond Antrobus

Image & Narrative

In this workshop with Raymond Antrobus, learn how the use of image can expand your poems into other, wide-ranging narratives.

Start Date: July 26, 2017 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Rachel Long

The Berlin Lens

Experiment with economy, pace and collage to explore themes of loneliness, domesticity and the female lived experience with Rachel Long.

Start Date: July 26, 2017 14:00
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Maurice Riordan

Radiant Form

Learn about poetry's 'perfect form', even in non traditional poems, with Maurice Riordan.

Start Date: July 27, 2017 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Disclosure: The Art in the Autobiographical

£35.00 *

Tutor: Kathryn Gray

Disclosure: The Art in the Autobiographical

Consider contrasting approaches to writing the turbulence of lived experience and consider the thorny matters of risks, rights and responsibilities in disclosure.

Start Date: July 27, 2017 14:00
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Jane Yeh

Writing a Flat-Pack Poem

Look at ways of building poems with Jane Yeh. Can you follow the assembly instructions?

Start Date: July 28, 2017 10:30
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£35.00 *

Tutor: Richard Scott

Poetry Vs. Shame

Explore the topic of shame with Richard Scott and consider if poetry might even challenge and defeat shame.

Start Date: July 28, 2017 14:00
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

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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?

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