Care Poetics
Show your caring side as we explore the possibilities of a more caring poetics.
What does it mean to give and receive care? How might we imagine and write into being more expansive modes of care? How can poetry conjure new attitudes to the routines and challenges of care? What might a caring poetics look like?
Though care is essential to our social and economic systems, it often remains invisible, taking place behind closed doors and in private spaces. Carers UK estimate that there are 5.8 million carers across the UK, defining a carer as ‘a person of any age who provides unpaid care and support to a family member, friend or neighbour who is disabled, has an illness or long-term condition, or who needs extra help as they grow older’.
More broadly, the intricacies of care structure our relationships with others and with our environment: how can we express and celebrate the care that enables the planet to thrive? Foregrounding care is particularly urgent in an era of environmental crises and Covid-19, both of which have prompted shifts in conceptions of mutual support and collective responsibility.
This course will probe care in its myriad forms, opening up new ways of understanding and writing about our interconnection and interdependence. We will experiment with writing passionately, urgently, personally, distantly, haphazardly, documenting and exploring the vital work of care. Writers including Denise Saul, Khairani Barokka, and Daniel Sluman will guide our attentive and caring poetics.
5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 7 October 2025. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.
Concessions & Accessibility
To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].
What to Expect
Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.
Image credit: @lmtrochezz
About Suzannah V. Evans 
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Suzannah V. Evans is a poet, researcher, and educator. Her debut full poetry collection is Under the Blue (Bloomsbury Poetry, September 2025). She is the author of Brightwork and Marine Objects / Some Language, and the editor of All Keyboards are Legitimate: Versions of Jules Laforgue (Guillemot Press). A chapter of her work appears in Carcanet’s anthology New Poetries VIII. Her poetry has been awarded the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment and a Northern Writers’ Award, performed at international festivals, and broadcast on BBC Radio. She holds an AHRC-funded PhD in modern poetry and has taught literature and creative writing widely in higher and adult education.
"The Poetry School courses have enabled me to develop my poetry without which my life would be dull."
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