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Online Courses

Learn poetry anywhere in the world

Our online programme of poetry courses and workshops makes learning poetry accessible to everyone, all from the comfort of your kitchen table. We offer online courses three terms a year and free learning activities all year round, both via CAMPUS, our social network for poets, giving you access at any time, from any place.

Year on year, we offer one of the largest programmes of online poetry courses in the world, covering a huge array of subjects and techniques, and available to you with as little as an Internet connection. Much like our face-to-face teaching, each online course is facilitated by one of our experienced tutors, who will provide quality writing assignments, reading material and personalised feedback on your poems, but in this instance, all via a virtual classroom.

Up to a fifth of all our online course students are based outside of the UK, from America and Canada to India, Germany, Singapore, Mexico, Uzbekistan and Australia. And the majority of our online courses are suitable to all levels of poets, employing a peer-to-peer model of education that draws strength from the diversity of voices from our students across the globe.

All our Online Courses

Poetic Artifice: Writing With & Against Veronica Forrest-Thomson (Masterclass, Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Will Harris

Poetic Artifice: Writing With & Against Veronica Forrest-Thomson (Masterclass, Autumn 2020)

Explore, and argue with, Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s seminal 'Poetic Artifice', as a means for investigating and expanding your own poetic practice.

Start Date: September 14, 2020
End Date: December 14, 2020 ( 92 Days )
Type: Online

Smears & Caresses: The Poetry of Abstract Art (Masterclass, Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Peter Hughes

Smears & Caresses: The Poetry of Abstract Art (Masterclass, Autumn 2020)

Create poems inspired by the most exciting art of the past century

Start Date: September 15, 2020
End Date: December 15, 2020 ( 92 Days )
Type: Online

Evicting the Body from its Home: The Work of Paul Celan (Masterclass)

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Tutor: Sarah Byrne

Evicting the Body from its Home: The Work of Paul Celan (Masterclass)

Take inspiration from Paul Celan to explore the complex topics of home, refuge, and eviction in your poetry.

Start Date: September 16, 2020
End Date: December 16, 2020 ( 92 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Rachael Allen

Fortnightly Feedback with Rachael Allen

Knock those loose poems into shape with some concentrated feedback.

Start Date: September 25, 2020
End Date: December 11, 2020 ( 78 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Liz Berry

Transformative Poetry

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

Start Date: September 26, 2020 12pm
End Date: December 5, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Meena Kandasamy

Writing Love in a Second Language

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

Start Date: September 26, 2020 10.30am-1.30pm
End Date: October 17, 2020 ( 22 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Anthony Anaxagorou (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Anthony Anaxagorou

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Anthony Anaxagorou (Autumn 2020)

Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in one of our flagship advanced workshops, led by Anthony Anaxagorou.

Start Date: September 28, 2020 2.00pm
End Date: November 30, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Wayne Holloway-Smith

What Now? (Autumn 2020)

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

Start Date: September 28, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: November 30, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Shazea Quraishi (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Shazea Quraishi

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Shazea Quraishi (Autumn 2020)

Develop your writing through discussion, feedback, and writing prompts in this advanced workshop with Shazea Quraishi.

Start Date: September 28, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: December 7, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Hell & Back: Writing Addiction & Recovery (International, Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Keith Hutson

Hell & Back: Writing Addiction & Recovery (International, Autumn 2020)

Explore how we can write compellingly about addiction with Laureate’s Choice poet, Keith Hutson.

Start Date: September 28, 2020
End Date: December 7, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Speaking as a Multitude: Long Poems & Sequences

£109.00 *

Tutor: Phoebe Power

Speaking as a Multitude: Long Poems & Sequences

Break out of compact discrete lyric poetry and explode into the fragments and multiplicities of long poems and sequences.

Start Date: September 28, 2020 7pm
End Date: December 7, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Wayne Holloway-Smith

What Now? (Intermediate, Autumn 2020)

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

Start Date: September 29, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: December 1, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Jennifer Wong

Time Travel Studio

Experiment with poetry’s power to reshuffle, reorient, and return to different temporal moments.

Start Date: September 29, 2020
End Date: October 27, 2020 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Ben See and Guest Tutors

Where Words Meet Music

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

Start Date: September 29, 2020 7–9.30pm
End Date: November 3, 2020 ( 36 Days )
Type: Events, Face-to-Face, Online • Location:

Cinema of Dreams: Fellini & Poetry (International)

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Tutor: Stav Poleg

Cinema of Dreams: Fellini & Poetry (International)

Walk the streets of Cinecittà and find inspiration in the cinema of Fellini as we experiment with dreams and memories, alongside fictional and theatrical scenes in our own poetry.

Start Date: September 29, 2020
End Date: December 8, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

'The most intimate act of reading': Translating Poetry & the Politics of the Personal (Transreading)

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Tutor: Sophie Collins

'The most intimate act of reading': Translating Poetry & the Politics of the Personal (Transreading)

Develop your poetry translation practice with exciting poet and translator Sophie Collins.

Start Date: September 29, 2020
End Date: December 8, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Tim Dooley

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Autumn 2020)

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

Start Date: September 30, 2020 2.00pm
End Date: December 9, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

Creative Constraint (Autumn 2020)

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

Start Date: September 30, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: December 2, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Mark Waldron

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Autumn 2020)

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

Start Date: September 30, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: December 2, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Retropoetics: Four Billion Years of Inspiration (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Rebecca Watts

Retropoetics: Four Billion Years of Inspiration (Autumn 2020)

Adventure away from personal experience and delve into the treasure chest of history

Start Date: September 30, 2020
End Date: December 9, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

The Pleasure Principle: Poetry & The Wild Culture of 'Want' (International)

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Tutor: Elena Byrne

The Pleasure Principle: Poetry & The Wild Culture of 'Want' (International)

Dive deep into the language of 'want' in your poetry and explore desire’s integral role in forming culture, identity, and creative authentic tools for survival.

Start Date: September 30, 2020
End Date: December 9, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Meryl Pugh

First Encounters (Autumn 2020)

Take your first steps into the world of poetry!

Start Date: October 1, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: December 3, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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

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Tutor: Jacqueline Saphra

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

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

Start Date: October 1, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: November 26, 2020 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Poetry School, London

Multilingual Poetry from Shakespeare Outwards (Transreading)

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Tutor: David Caddy

Multilingual Poetry from Shakespeare Outwards (Transreading)

Explore the transgressive practices of Multilingual Poetry, taking inspiration from Shakespeare to contemporary writers, to resist monoculturalism!

Start Date: October 1, 2020
End Date: December 10, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Richard Price

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price (Autumn 2020)

Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop with prize-winning poet, Richard Price.

Start Date: October 2, 2020 11.00am
End Date: December 4, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Fortnightly Feedback with Rachael Allen (Autumn Term 2020, Group 2)

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Tutor: Rachael Allen

Fortnightly Feedback with Rachael Allen (Autumn Term 2020, Group 2)

Knock those loose poems into shape with some concentrated feedback.

Start Date: October 2, 2020
End Date: December 18, 2020 ( 78 Days )
Type: Online

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber (Autumn 2020)

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Tutor: Ros Barber

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber (Autumn 2020)

Monthly all-day Saturday workshops with Ros Barber.

Start Date: October 3, 2020 10.30am
End Date: December 5, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Kathryn Simmonds

Against the Grain (International)

Learn where your resistances are and try working against them. Who knows what will happen?

Start Date: October 5, 2020
End Date: December 14, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Tamar Yoseloff

Read & Respond (Autumn 2020)

Join MA tutor Tamar Yoseloff for a close examination of many styles and approaches to hone your skills and bring your poetry to new and exciting places!

Start Date: October 6, 2020 6.45pm
End Date: December 8, 2020 ( 64 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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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: October 6, 2020 7pm
End Date: December 1, 2020 ( 57 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Rhys Trimble

Poetry & Eclogue: Ritual Ecopoetics

Journey from bucolics to contemporary writing to explore experimental Ecopoetry’s radical possibilities.

Start Date: October 6, 2020 7pm
End Date: December 15, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

American Poetry of the ‘San Francisco Renaissance’ (International)

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Tutor: Wanda O’Connor

American Poetry of the ‘San Francisco Renaissance’ (International)

Travel to mid-century California to take influence and inspiration from the ‘San Francisco Renaissance’.

Start Date: October 6, 2020
End Date: December 15, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

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Tutor: Daisy Lafarge

The Perpetual Latin of Love

Find inspiration in the language of science and organisational systems to create innovative new poetry.

Start Date: October 7, 2020 7pm
End Date: December 16, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

To Be Here & There Simultaneously: Poems for/from Our Migratory Selves (Transreading)

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Tutor: Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese

To Be Here & There Simultaneously: Poems for/from Our Migratory Selves (Transreading)

Remain foreign to yourself and explore the liminal space between locution and location in your writing.

Start Date: October 8, 2020
End Date: December 17, 2020 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Writing Dystopia / Building a Dystopian World

£75.00 *

Tutor: Jennifer Wong

Writing Dystopia / Building a Dystopian World

Can poetry lead us out of dystopia and help to present the truth about our current times?

Start Date: October 10, 2020 10.30am – 1pm
End Date: October 31, 2020 ( 22 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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

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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: October 17, 2020 10.30am-4.30pm
End Date: October 17, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Poetry School, London

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Tutor: Mona Arshi

Ghazal Masterclass with Mona Arshi

Join Mona Arshi for a detailed exploration of one of the world’s most ancient poetic forms.

Start Date: October 24, 2020 10.30am
End Date: November 28, 2020 ( 36 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

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Tutor: Astrid Alben

Poetry Surgery with Astrid Alben

In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Astrid Alben.

Start Date: October 24, 2020 10.30am
End Date: October 24, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Poetry School, London

“GRRR, ARGGH”: Poems Inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer

£75.00 *

Tutor: Chrissy Williams

“GRRR, ARGGH”: Poems Inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A day of writing new poems – the ultimate Buffy fandom / poetry / Halloween crossover event!

Start Date: October 31, 2020 10.30am
End Date: October 31, 2020 ( 1 Day )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online • Location: Poetry School, London

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Tutor: Nina Powles

Language Diaries (Studio+)

Traverse the shifting path to fluency and explore language’s connection to selfhood, before creating your own mini zine.

Start Date: November 2, 2020
End Date: December 7, 2020 ( 36 Days )
Type: Online

Arrange, Layer, Combine: Poetry & Collage Studio

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Tutor: Zakia Carpenter-Hall

Arrange, Layer, Combine: Poetry & Collage Studio

Get tactile and explore poetry as a kind of architecture.

Start Date: November 4, 2020
End Date: December 2, 2020 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online

Window, Mirror, Knife, Disaster, & Reinvention: Poetry of Glass

£75.00 *

Tutor: Judy Brown

Window, Mirror, Knife, Disaster, & Reinvention: Poetry of Glass

Wipe off your monocle, have your glass armonica tuned, move the tomatoes into the greenhouse, and smash the glass ceiling with Judy Brown.

Start Date: November 14, 2020 2–4.30pm
End Date: November 28, 2020 ( 15 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Voicing Public Emotion: Poetry & Politics

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Tutor: Carmen Bugan

Voicing Public Emotion: Poetry & Politics

Move between the public and private in this day of political poetic writing.

Start Date: November 14, 2020 2.30–5pm (GMT)
End Date: December 5, 2020 ( 22 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Poetry as Revelation Studio: Divine Inspiration & Disclosure

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Tutor: Sascha Akhtar

Poetry as Revelation Studio: Divine Inspiration & Disclosure

Reclaim the revelationary language of priestesses, goddesses, and divinities.

Start Date: November 16, 2020
End Date: December 14, 2020 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online

£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: November 21, 2020 2-4.30pm
End Date: December 12, 2020 ( 22 Days )
Type: Face-to-Face, Online

Show 39 More

How Online Works

Online courses take place in CAMPUS, our digital platform for poets. CAMPUS is a Social Learning Network (SLN) that lives as part of The Poetry School website, so if you already have an account with us, you can access it straight away.

If you don’t currently have an account with The Poetry School, then you can register for free here.

Our online courses are structured according to regular fortnightly sessions (on average this amounts to 5 assignments over 10 weeks). Some also contain scheduled live chats, a ‘real time’, live-typed chatroom discussion between the tutor and students. Each term we offer a mixture of generative classes (writing new poems), feedback classes (honing old ones) and reading classes (learning more about poetry).

Each online course has its own dedicated private group in CAMPUS. Once you book a course you will automatically be enrolled and be able to access your course group. You will use your course group to post messages, interact with other poets, participate in live chats, submit poems and download assignments and reading lists. Everything is transcribed and kept for you in your group and you will be able to access everything – poems, messages, assignments, live chat transcripts – for as long as you need to.

We have worked hard to make CAMPUS as fuss-free and as close to face-to-face teaching as possible, with the additional benefits of convenience and access that online allows. If you are new to online learning, and unsure about whether it is suitable, please go to our IS ONLINE RIGHT FOR ME? section below.

ARE YOU AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT?

As well as normal online programme, we also run a small selection of International Courses, which are exactly the same as our other online courses, but don’t contain any live chats or other synchronous learning elements, and are fully accessible regardless of what time zone you live in. Just look out for the ‘International Courses’ label in the course title. (Please also note that our Fortnightly Feedback, Studios and Masterclasses are also fully accessible to international poets).

What will I learn?

Each online course consists of a mixture of reading, discussion and writing exercises to stimulate thoughts, creative expression and technical craft, alongside encouragement and constructive feedback from your tutor and peers on your finished work.

Content will vary course to course, but on all our online 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 (on average 4-5 finished poems per course)
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

We pride ourselves on the standard of our teaching and the poetry produced on every one of our courses. Many of our online 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

The Poetry School offers a wide variety of online courses, and subject matter and structure varies from term to term, so please always check the course information carefully.

We have five main types of online course:

Interactive Courses consist of one assignment posted per ‘session’ every fortnight. (Most courses last for 5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks). You will be expected to post poems in response to an assignment, and then feedback on each other’s work in your CAMPUS online group forum. Each session culminates in a 2 hour live chatroom exchange with your course tutor and fellow students, where all the latest poems are examined in a free-flowing, live-typed discussion. All live chats are then transcribed and archived for students to re-read whenever they want. New assignments are posted after each live chat. Class size = 12 maximum.

Note: most our interactive courses are fully adaptable to international students and others who might have difficulty making all the live chats. To find out more information, please email [email protected]

International Courses are exactly the same as Interactive courses, but there are no live chats, making them accessible to students and tutors who live in all international time zones. All feedback and discussion on these courses is written/typed via the private group message board. Class size = 12 maximum.

Transreading courses – co-curated with Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese – invite us to write poems and translations in response to wide readings. Like translators, we read ‘the originals’ closely and intimately in order to transcend cultures, languages, and genres. We read voraciously: poems brought to English by translation, multilingual texts, fiction, nonfiction, drama, archives, ephemera, visual arts. Through trans-reading and trans-writing, we open our poetries to the multi-literate world. Transreading courses, without live chats, are suitable for UK and international students. Class size = 12 maximum.

Fortnightly Feedback courses are a good way to polish up poems-in-progress, and early draft work you are preparing for submission or preparation. Students share and leave written feedback within their CAMPUS online group forum only. There is no live chat component. These courses are suitable for UK & international students. Class size = 16 maximum.

Poetry Studios are short, intensive poetry writing courses that last 3-4 weeks. Unlike our standard 10 week courses, the emphasis on ‘Studios’ is more heavily skewed towards writing and getting words on the page, with a softer focus on group feedback and editing. Class size = 16 maximum.

Masterclasses are 12 week courses with a much deeper consideration of technical craft and critical theory. For advanced students only: fluency with poetic language and ideas will be assumed. There are no live chats and they are suitable for UK and International students. Class size = 10 maximum.

Subject matter and level of ability for each course vary hugely from term to term.

Is Online right for me?

Online courses are open to all students but a basic level of digital literacy is essential. The Poetry School can help you with CAMPUS technical issues, but you need to be a confident user of digital platforms to take part in these classes. To find out whether an online course is right for you, please take our self-assessment quiz.

No specialist software is required – you just need a computer, tablet or mobile device and a wifi connection. All the live chats are typed/written and done in a multi-user chat room on CAMPUS, and due to the fast pace of these sessions, it is recommended you use a laptop or PC, or a tablet/smartphone with a keyboard attachment.

FAQ

Help! I’m having technical problems

Please email [email protected] if you’re having issues with CAMPUS or the Poetry School website. If it’s a local technical issue (i.e., with your computer, not our website) then please seek advice or help from a friend.

What happens if everyone on my course is much better than I am?

‘Better’ is very subjective. Our online courses are designed to be non-partisan, as we believe the best kind of educational experience we can offer is one where all types of student can meet and collaborate meaningfully with one another regardless of how they each self-identify (beginner, amateur, pro). There will be some poets in every group that, even though they have publishing credits, still feel very much like starters. Once you’ve got through the first session, you’ll see how useful, supportive and generous being in a large group of poets of varying levels can be. Many advanced poets also like having new writers in the group, as they tend to have very fresh and original approaches to reading work. All contributions will be extremely welcome.

Will I receive a certificate at the end?

Unfortunately we don’t do those. If you’re interested in something fully accredited, and you’re based in the UK, we do offer a Writing Poetry MA.

I desperately want to do a particular course, but I can’t make the live chats. Can I still do the course?

We’re happy to be flexible with individual course arrangements. Just let us know before or after you’ve enrolled and we will try accommodate you onto your course the best way possible. It’s not always feasible, but we do what we can. If you’re based abroad, then we offer a range of International Courses each term that have no live chats, as well as Feedback, Studio and Online Reading courses.

All our Online Courses

How Online Works

What will I learn?

Course formats

Is Online right for me?

FAQ

Help! I’m having technical problems

What happens if everyone on my course is much better than I am?

Will I receive a certificate at the end?

I desperately want to do a particular course, but I can’t make the live chats. Can I still do the course?

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

Find a Course