From Miniature to Global: Ecological Imaginaries Studio

Join us to explore how the minutest of objects, details or words can offer new ways of thinking about the climate emergency.

Carved into your shell we find trade routes, the wake of explorers, contours of underwater mountains, the migratory patterns of whales. – Jane Lovell “Ming”, On Earth, as it is

In this Studio course, we will explore how poems can connect minute, concrete details to much larger global issues: ideas of hope, action, and care. We will start with the minute (with the aim of going beyond it) and explore the techniques that the ‘minute’ calls upon us to pursue – to take care, to look closely, to notice detail, to slow down, to listen, to use all of our senses. The aim is to explore how looking closer and taking our time offers fresh perspectives on the world.

From Seamus Heaney’s fish mouths and poisoned lakes to Karen McCarthy Woolf’s white butterflies and unfathomable loss, we will draw inspiration from poems which connect the specific to the vast. We will examine texts by authors such as Wendell Berry, Jason Allen-Paisant, William Wordsworth, Mary Oliver, Megan Kitching, Zaffar Kunial, and Virginia Woolf.

Through a series of practical tasks, inspiring texts and creative prompts, we will seek and create our own poetics of hope, detail, care and action. You will come away with new and workshopped poems, fresh ideas and new ways of looking at the world.

Studios are 4-week intensive courses. Reading material will be distributed before the course begins. There are no live chats so they are suitable for both 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: @paulglucaci

About Rachel Bower View Profile

Rachel Bower is the author of three poetry collections and an academic book on literary letters. Her debut novel, It Comes from the River was published by Bloomsbury in January 2025. Her new poetry collection, Bee, was published by Hazel Press in June 2025. Rachel edited the Family Lines anthology with Simon Armitage (Faber & Faber, February 2026), and she is currently working with Buglife on a collection about endangered insects. Rachel was awarded second place in the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year 2024, and her poems and stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including The Guardian, The White Review, Magma and The Rialto. She had a poem Highly Commended in the Ginkgo Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Best Poem of UK Landscape 2023. Rachel won The London Magazine Short Story Prize and the W&A Short Story Competition in 2020. Her work is represented by Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.

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