Poetry & Migration
Explore the important topic of migration, learning how poetry can be the perfect vehicle to tell stories of movement, settlement, and belonging.
* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *
Movement and settlement, belonging and unbelonging, the meaning of ‘home’ – all have been (and continue to be) important themes in literatures across history and throughout the world.
‘We migrate because there is a part of us that is migratory, but each migration marks the loss of some stability’ said George Szirtes. There are many reasons why people migrate, including economic reasons, education, marriage, or as a result of war or natural disaster. In this course, we will look at representations of migration in poetry and discuss the multiple ways in which poets from across the globe have explored the topic, thinking about both the movement itself as well as the experience of being a migrant or (first or second generation) immigrant in their country of destination.
In a time when the political discourse is regressively anti-immigrant (and, specifically, horrifically anti-refugee), literatures of migration and diaspora are potent in their ability to legitimise migrant and diasporic experiences, and contest and destabilise static notions of nationalism, race, and ethnicity. We will read and draw inspiration from the works of poets such as Szirtes, Bhanu Kapil, Ocean Vuong, Aria Aber, Warsan Shire, and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh. In a safe environment, we will try our own hand at writing about migration, whether drawing from our own experiences or those of ancestors.
2 Half-day Zoom sessions, running 10am – 12.30pm (BST), on 17 & 24 June 2023. 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. 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 Katie Moum
About Sarala Estruch 
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Sarala Estruch is a British writer, poet, and researcher. After All We Have Travelled is her debut full-length poetry collection. Her pamphlet Say (flipped eye, 2021) was a Poetry School Book of The Year and was described as an ‘extraordinary debut’ by the Poetry Book Society. A finalist of the Primers mentorship scheme and a fellow of the Ledbury Poetry Critics programme, her poetry, creative non-fiction, and reviews have been widely published in outlets including The Poetry Review, Wasafiri, and The Guardian, and featured on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb. Sarala is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Liverpool, where she is a recipient of the JIC Davies Studentship. She lives in London.
‘I feel like I learnt a lot from the tutor whose subject knowledge was excellent and feedback spot on. We were introduced to an interesting array of writing and I enjoyed the writing exercises/prompts.’
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