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

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Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

Poem, Prompt, Pick & Mix (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 9, 2018 6.45pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

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Tutor: Wayne Holloway-Smith

Pamphlet / Portfolio (Summer 2018)

Looking to take your work to the next level and develop your portfolio

Start Date: May 14, 2018 6:45pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

The Construction of the Poem (Summer 2018)

£171.00 *

Tutor: Various Tutors

The Construction of the Poem (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 14, 2018 6.45pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

£90.00 *

Tutor: Matti Spence

Poetics of Presence (Exeter)

Learn to practise poetry as a method of deep-listening and an expansion of how you experience the present moment.

Start Date: May 15, 2018 7pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Exeter Community Centre, Exeter

£171.00 *

Tutor: Tamar Yoseloff

Routes into Poetry (Summer 2018)

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 15, 2018 6.45pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Ecopoetry, Environmentalism and Activism (Bristol)

£90.00 *

Tutor: Samantha Walton

Ecopoetry, Environmentalism and Activism (Bristol)

Explore poetry’s power to engage with environmental issues and imagine new ecological futures.

Start Date: May 16, 2018 7pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Hours, Bristol

On Noticing and Startling: The Short Story

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Tutor: Eley Williams and David Hayden

On Noticing and Startling: The Short Story

Study with two celebrated poets and short story writers, to learn the different poetic techniques that can also be used in short fiction.

Start Date: May 17, 2018 6.45pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Summer 2018)

£171.00 *

Tutor: David Crystal

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 17, 2018 2pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests AM (Summer 2018)

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Tutor: Kathryn Maris

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests AM (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 17, 2018 11am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests PM (Summer 2018)

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Tutor: Kathryn Maris

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests PM (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 17, 2018 2pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

£171.00 *

Tutor: Meryl Pugh

First Encounters (Summer 2018)

Take your first steps into the world of poetry!

Start Date: May 17, 2018 6.45pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Jack Underwood (Summer 2018)

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Tutor: Jack Underwood

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Jack Underwood (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 21, 2018 14:00
End Date: July 23, 2018 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Sasha Dugdale (Summer 2018)

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Tutor: Sasha Dugdale

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Sasha Dugdale (Summer 2018)

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

Start Date: May 23, 2018 6.45pm
End Date: August 1, 2018 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

The New York Influence 1: O'Hara, Ashbery and Visual Art

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Tutor: Tamar Yoseloff

The New York Influence 1: O'Hara, Ashbery and Visual Art

Take inspiration from O’Hara and Ashbery’s work as poets, critics and curators.

Start Date: May 26, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber (Summer 2018)

£177.00 *

Tutor: Ros Barber

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber (Summer 2018)

Monthly all-day Saturday workshops with Ros Barber.

Start Date: May 26, 2018 10.30am
End Date: July 21, 2018 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

The Nervous Line and its Performative Break

£72.00 *

Tutor: Holly Pester

The Nervous Line and its Performative Break

Study the dynamics of a line of poetry, and consider ways in which a line might be wildly interpreted.

Start Date: June 2, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

£72.00 *

Tutor: Katrina Naomi

When I Was at my Most Beautiful

Take inspiration from contemporary and traditional Japanese poetry, and try your hand at some translation.

Start Date: June 9, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Manchester Saturday Sessions (June 2018)

£59.00 *

Tutor: Peter Sansom

Manchester Saturday Sessions (June 2018)

One of three all-day workshop sessions with the Sansoms in Manchester.

Start Date: June 9, 2018 10:30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street., Manchester

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Tutor: Andrew McMillan

Divinity of the Body

Journey with Andrew McMillan through the lens of the divine to explore the carnal, the weak, the shameful, the loving and the harmful parts of ourselves.

Start Date: June 16, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

The New York Influence 2: Basquiat and Jazz Poetry

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Tutor: Tamar Yoseloff

The New York Influence 2: Basquiat and Jazz Poetry

Take inspiration from Basquiat, Langston Hughes and Frank O’Hara, and use their improvisatory and collaborative energy to create new poems.

Start Date: June 23, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

£144.00 *

Tutor: Jen Calleja

Creative Translation

Learn how to apply the tools of translation and transform other texts and art forms into poetry.

Start Date: June 30, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

Fresh Words from America: Exploring the Hottest Contemporary American Poetry

£35.00 *

Tutor: Peter Kahn

Fresh Words from America: Exploring the Hottest Contemporary American Poetry

Discover the freshest talent from across the Atlantic with celebrated poet, educator and anthologist Peter Kahn.

Start Date: July 7, 2018 2pm
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Resonance & Redistribution: Masterclass with Nuar Alsadir

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Tutor: Nuar Alsadir

Resonance & Redistribution: Masterclass with Nuar Alsadir

Get inspired with Nuar Alsadir and learn how to follow the unconscious impulses of your early drafts.

Start Date: July 10, 2018 10:30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: The Poetry School, London

Manchester Saturday Sessions (July 2018)

£59.00 *

Tutor: Peter Sansom

Manchester Saturday Sessions (July 2018)

One of three all-day workshop sessions with the Sansoms in Manchester.

Start Date: July 14, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location: Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street., Manchester

Literary Locomotion: The Poetry of Movement

£72.00 *

Tutor: Rebecca Goss

Literary Locomotion: The Poetry of Movement

Explore poems on the pleasures and pains of bodily effort.

Start Date: July 21, 2018 10.30am
Type: Face-to-Face • Location:

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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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