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Home » Online

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

Eryri/Snowdon: Masterclass £193.00 * Tutor: Peter Hughes

Eryri/Snowdon: Masterclass

Walk through the Snowdonia National Park with us and take inspiration from this exceptional natural location.

Start Date: September 13, 2022
End Date: December 6, 2022 ( 85 Days )
Type: Online
Languages of the Body Masterclass £193.00 * Tutor: Khairani Barokka

Languages of the Body Masterclass

Explore the potential for poetics to transform bodily experience into new creative work.

Start Date: September 14, 2022
End Date: December 7, 2022 ( 85 Days )
Type: Online
Writing Catastrophe: From the Personal to the Planetary £193.00 * Tutor: Richard Georges

Writing Catastrophe: From the Personal to the Planetary

Explore the muse of disasters and learn how we can usefully write trauma, tragedy, and catastrophe for a better tomorrow.

Start Date: September 21, 2022
End Date: December 14, 2022 ( 85 Days )
Type: Online
Imposters! Poetry of Personae, Pretence, & Imposter Syndrome £122.00 * Tutor: Kate Potts

Imposters! Poetry of Personae, Pretence, & Imposter Syndrome

Find the forms, craft, and confidence to think through pretence, fraudulence, and personae.

Start Date: September 26, 2022
End Date: December 5, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Against the Grain Sold Out! Tutor: Kathryn Simmonds

Against the Grain

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

Start Date: September 27, 2022
End Date: December 6, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Into the Dark Forest – Transreading Dante’s Divine Comedy Sold Out! Tutor: Stav Poleg

Into the Dark Forest – Transreading Dante’s Divine Comedy

Enter the dark forest to find inspiration in the mesmerising world of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Start Date: September 27, 2022
End Date: December 6, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
This is Not an Elegy: Writing Grief £122.00 * Tutor: Jennifer Wong

This is Not an Elegy: Writing Grief

Consider the shape and weight of loss as we explore the elegy.

Start Date: September 27, 2022
End Date: December 6, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Fortnightly Feedback with Rebecca Watts £88.00 * Tutor: Rebecca Watts

Fortnightly Feedback with Rebecca Watts

Knock your loose poems into shape with some concentrated feedback from poet and editor, Rebecca Watts.

Start Date: September 28, 2022
End Date: December 14, 2022 ( 78 Days )
Type: Online
Transreading Hitchcock: Lights, Camera, Surprise! £122.00 * Tutor: Sue Burge

Transreading Hitchcock: Lights, Camera, Surprise!

Find inspiration in the cinema of Hitchcock as we experiment with suspense, mother figures, and MacGuffins in our poetry.

Start Date: September 28, 2022
End Date: December 14, 2022 ( 78 Days )
Type: Online
Magritte’s Head in the Mirror: Ekphrasis, Art, & Translation Sold Out! Tutor: Elena Karina Byrne

Magritte’s Head in the Mirror: Ekphrasis, Art, & Translation

Push your ekphrastic practice to the next level under the guidance of expert editor and writer, Elena Karina Byrne.

Start Date: September 28, 2022
End Date: December 7, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
The Quality of Sprawl: Long Poems & Sequences Sold Out! Tutor: Jonathan Edwards

The Quality of Sprawl: Long Poems & Sequences

Experiment with sprawling forms, large scale works, and ambitious sequences to create a lasting impact.

Start Date: September 29, 2022
End Date: December 8, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
‘The bravest people on earth’: On Displacement £122.00 * Tutor: Natasha Hakimi Zapata

‘The bravest people on earth’: On Displacement

Reflect on home, exile, journeys, war, and humanity.

Start Date: September 30, 2022
End Date: December 9, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Transreading the Pamphlet Form with Guillemot Press £122.00 * Tutor: Luke Thompson

Transreading the Pamphlet Form with Guillemot Press

Explore the creative potential of the pamphlet form with expert pamphlet publishers, Guillemot Press.

Start Date: September 30, 2022
End Date: December 9, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Reading & Writing Robert Frost £122.00 * Tutor: Jodie Hollander

Reading & Writing Robert Frost

Closely examine the work of Robert Frost to take inspiration from one of poetry’s true masters.

Start Date: October 3, 2022
End Date: December 12, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Lyric Essays: Rumination, Speculation, Love Sold Out! Tutor: Sophie Seita

Lyric Essays: Rumination, Speculation, Love

Encounter and experiment with the essayistic, as we blend poetry, memoir, and criticism to create radical new forms.

Start Date: October 5, 2022
End Date: December 14, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Trust the Image £122.00 * Tutor: Catherine Smith

Trust the Image

Learn to use daring figurative language and harness the power of surprising imagery.

Start Date: October 5, 2022
End Date: December 14, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
Sound Poetry: Vocative Cases £122.00 * Tutor: Rhys Trimble

Sound Poetry: Vocative Cases

Explore avant-garde Sound Poetry, as we look for patterns and music in language that are not rooted in syntax.

Start Date: October 6, 2022
End Date: December 15, 2022 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online
The Cut & Paste Studio £88.00 * Tutor: Danne Jobin

The Cut & Paste Studio

Explore poetry and collage to expand your practice and open up new avenues for mixed-media writing.

Start Date: October 17, 2022
End Date: November 14, 2022 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online
How Poetry Can Serve Death: Memento Mori & Vanitas Studio £88.00 * Tutor: Sascha Akhtar

How Poetry Can Serve Death: Memento Mori & Vanitas Studio

Like love and sex, death is one of the great mysteries; meditate on the many approaches to the topic and develop exciting new work of your own in this field.

Start Date: November 1, 2022
End Date: November 29, 2022 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online
Loneliness Studio+ Sold Out! Tutor: Tice

Loneliness Studio+

Join us to create community through writing, as we explore that difficult topic of loneliness.

Start Date: November 7, 2022
End Date: December 12, 2022 ( 36 Days )
Type: Online
Poet as Archaeologist Studio Sold Out! Tutor: Holly Hopkins

Poet as Archaeologist Studio

Grab your Indiana Jones hat and trowel – in this course we’ll generate new poems inspired by the work of archaeologists and the objects they uncover.

Start Date: November 16, 2022
End Date: December 13, 2022 ( 28 Days )
Type: Online
Show 15 More

How Online Works

Online Programme consists of text-based courses with no video content. These 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 chatroom exchange with your course tutor and fellow students, where all the latest poems are examined in a free-flowing, live-typed, text-based 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.
The activity I want is fully booked – what can I do?
Contact us and ask to be put on a waiting list - if any places come free, we will let you know.

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Email: [email protected] • Tel: 0207 582 1679

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