Poetry at the Next Level: An Advanced Workshop with Wayne Holloway-Smith
Challenge yourself, elevate your writing, and take the next steps in your poetry career
* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *
This Advanced course will focus on editing and developing your poems-in-progress and taking inspiration from a range of contemporary poetry to expand your practice. Under the expert guidance of prize-winning poet and Poetry Review Editor, Wayne Holloway-Smith, you’ll push your work to new territories, engage in lively discussions of current poetry, and develop your reading, writing, and critical practices.
As part of the course, you’ll also be welcomed into a supportive community of critical peers, who will help elevate your work, encourage experimentation, challenge your thinking, and introduce you to fellow writers at contemporary poetry’s cutting edge.
Throughout each term, Wayne will guide you through some of the most exciting poetry being written today, lead feedback discussions of your own work, and offer individually-tailored advice on the next steps in your poetry career.
10 weekly Zoom sessions on Mondays, 6.45–8.45pm (BST), starts 6 Oct 2025.
Please note: Entry to this course is by application only. If you would like to join, please send a submission of three poems to [email protected] before booking your place. If you have attended this workshop before, you can book your place again without reapplying.
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: @girlwithredhat
About Wayne Holloway-Smith 
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Wayne Holloway-Smith has published two collections of poetry, Alarum (Bloodaxe 2017), a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice, and Love Minus Love (Bloodaxe 2020), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. He won the National Poetry Competition in 2018. Additionally, his pocketbook, Beloved, in case you’ve been wondering was published by Donut Press in 2011; I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE WENDING, an experimental unbound book of poems, was published by Prototype in 2018; his latest work, Lobsters, was published by Makina Books in 2021. He is currently the editor for Poetry Review.
"The courses helped me a lot and I enjoyed meeting other poets and hearing their work."
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