Move beyond simple nostalgia to explore childhood, and writing the ‘child self’, on its own terms.


For more information and FAQs about how our courses work, please go to our Face-to-Face Courses, Online Courses and Downloads pages.
Move beyond simple nostalgia to explore childhood, and writing the ‘child self’, on its own terms.
Learn the skills, tricks, and turns needed to truly master the sestina!
In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Timothy Donnelly.
Learn to outwit, cajole, and break free from syntax to transcend poetic writing and produce true works of art.
A collaborative dreaming and writing un-workshop.
Calling Poets, Pirates, and Dreamers; come sail with us to Dark Canadee.
Take inspiration from the botanical world and explore the fruitful grounds between poetry and plants.
Write exciting new poems inspired by France’s vibrant and diverse poetry scene.
Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop with Shazea Quraishi.
After being cooped up inside for so long, take your writing into the world and get site-specific.
Repeat, reiterate, rephrase, return, reload, and reprise with Gboyega Odubanjo.
Using choruses, repetition, and other techniques to create echoes and resonances that amplify.
Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop with Anthony Anaxagorou.
Learn to shape your poetic voice and experiment with new ones in your writing.
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!
Investigate the poetic potential of trees in myths, legends, and scientific sources.
Because who's been to a dinner party for the longest time?
Develop your poetry translation practice with exciting poet and translator Sophie Collins.
Tim Dooley’s weekly workshop for poets looking to develop their individual voice and technique.
Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced course with Mark Waldron.
An advanced tour through avant-garde writing with the editor of experimental poetry press, if p then q.
Mix up your writing and learn new skills and techniques with Jacqueline Saphra.
Explore writing around a unifying idea to create a multi-faceted, cumulative 'concept book’.
Test the limits of ‘ars poetica’ to ask whether all poems are really about poetry?
Take your first steps into the world of poetry!
Knock your loose poems into shape with some concentrated feedback from expert editor and poet, André Naffis-Sahely.
Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop with Richard Price.
Break down and build up again: look at the work of non-English poets from the past and uncover the clues they can offer your own practice.
In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Liz Berry.
Monthly all-day Saturday workshops with Ros Barber.
Take the next steps in your poetry career and explore contemporary poetry’s cutting-edge.
Bring voices from literary history into conversation with present-day poetics to expand your own writing.
Bring your poetry to the next level and explore contemporary poetry’s cutting-edge.
Leap from page to screen and create interactive poems fit for our digital age.
Embody the natural world and become the speaking body of nature in your work.
Explore one of the world's greatest neglected literatures in Transreading Ukrainian poetry.
Explore sensitive and truthful ways to represent family relationships in your work.
Start to depict your own multitudes and forge pathways of poetic connection.
After a year spent in one place, join us for some poetic travel!
Read and write poetry, listen to music, take inspiration from lyrics, and consider the connections between them all.
Explore poetry as a musical instrument, to develop your skills with rhythm and musicality.
Reconnect with, and celebrate, the world around you through poetry.
Consider how one might write poems of faith in this more secular age.
Take a tour of Scottish poetry with expert guide, Richard Price.
Explore the work of Emily Dickinson for inspiration in your own writing.
Across the room, a giant waves his arms in slow-motion as the music fades – poetry is happening again.
Find your ‘big idea’ and get to work on a propulsive new sonnet sequence with an expert in the field!
In-depth 1-2-1 discussion on your poetry with Fiona Benson.
Join us for an inspiring day of reading, writing, and discussion, alongside some practical exploration of lichens!
The Poetry School’s teaching year runs over three ‘terms’ – Autumn, Spring and Summer. Each term we offer around 40-50 courses and workshops that cater to a variety of levels, varying in length and subject matter. The course programme changes every term with more new courses, workshops and tutors, but often includes courses that run over three terms and popular repeats.
We offer both ‘classroom’ teaching (UK) and ‘virtual’ teaching (international). You can visit our Face-to-Face Courses and Online Courses pages for more detailed information about course structures, process and what to expect.
Most of our courses and workshops accommodate writers with a wide range of experience, but some are specifically designed for beginners or more practicised poets.
Here are our definitions:
Our programme is developed around these three teaching levels, although we also offer many courses that are Open to all – courses aimed at all levels, often focusing on a specific theme or inspirational subject matter.
‘Literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm’ – OED
‘Poetry is a heightened imagistic use of language that does things to the heart and head’ – Grace Nichols
‘A made thing, a verbal construct, an event in language’ – Edward Hirsch
‘Poetry is memorable speech’ – W H Auden
‘Poetry does not explain life. It gives life to feeling and seeing’ – Sarah Stetie
‘Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not’ – Samuel Johnson