Carmen et Error
Exploring erotics and finding the perfect poetry in imperfection .
* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *
A poem and a mistake. Ovid’s cited reason for exile will be taken as a motif for exploring poetics of the erotic and in terms of the energy and role of accidents and mistakes in poetry. The workshop will consist of two parts:
Part 1 – CARMEN: We will consider the erotic in poetry in close reading / discussion of essays from Ovid, Ann Carson, Mona Arshi, Bernadette Mayer, and Golnoosh Nour, amongst others. Texts will be circulated prior to the session. We will consider notions of abandon, refusal and ekphrasis within poetics and how these elements may contribute to or trouble the erotic. A free writing exercise will ensue to explore a personal erotics.
Part 2 – ERROR: Here we will start by thinking about literal imperfections in work and consider the role of signatures of imperfection and of the value of work that appears naïve. What do mistakes offer us? We will think together about forms permitting reader slippage and what this means; how we find the right level of vulnerability in form and content, how a sympathetic contract is maintained, and responsibilities of poets in society. Examining politically charged works from activist poets including Mahmoud Darwish, Audre Lorde and Shash Trevett, we consider the role of erotics in activism.
1-off Zoom session at 10.30am – 1pm (BST on Sunday 6th September)
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.
What to Expect
This course is part of The September Sessions: 10 Years of the MA in Writing in Poetry, a series of Zoom workshops celebrating 10 Years of our MA in Writing in Poetry programme. Check out the full line up here.
More information about how our Video Courses work can be found on the Video Courses page. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].
Image Credit: WikiArt
About Rushika Wickramasinghe 
View Profile
Rushika Wick graduated from the Poetry School & Newcastle University Writing Poetry MA in 2025. Rushika runs sunseekers poetry project with Ana Seferovic – curating occasional multidisciplinary and cross-modal arts events. She co-curates ancestral, a poetry reading series with fellow MA graduate and poet Sitron Panapoulos at a residency in Present Tense, London. She has collaborated with dancers, produced ekphrastic work for the National Gallery and creates poem objects. Her work has been widely published.
Her first collection Afterlife as Trash (Verve 2021) had work highly commended in the Forward Prizes. Her latest collection Horse (Broken Sleep 2025) concerns speculative archives and was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize. Infections of Loss (Broken Sleep, 2025) was the PBS summer pamphlet selection.
"Poetry School is giving me the freedom to express myself in the the expanse of poetry. It has giving me the sanctuary to feel connected, to be healed. It has opened my window for the garden of imagination."
A Cloud in Trousers: Emotional Intensification Through Distance 
A Magnificent Error: Poetry after Magritte 
Sacred Female Rage