Poetry, Poetics, and the Lyric Essay Masterclass
Get innovative with lyrical essays, poethics, and manifesti.
This exciting new course will explore how poetic content can be produced through a myriad of forms, with a focus on innovative poetry, poetics, and the lyric essay. Poems and poetics will be read from 24 renowned transatlantic poets, including Claudia Rankine, Bhanu Kapil, Forrest Gander, and Jerome Rothenberg from Atlantic Drift: an Anthology of Poetry and Poetics (Arc Publications, 2017), co-edited by the tutor for this course, James Byrne.
Through regular feedback and a range of course materials, participants will produce a portfolio of new poems, lyric essays, and poetics, using prompts that emanate from discussions and readings of relevant texts. The writing of poetics as a ‘speculative discourse’ (Sheppard) will be encouraged alongside writing through the lyric essay mode. Aspects of the lyric will be taught across forms and there will also be a consideration of ‘poethics’ (Retallack), and of how poetry can respond sensitively in a shifting political and social dynamic in the 21st century.
Under the guidance of James – author of seven collections of poetry, editor, workshop facilitator, and translator – students will develop new ideas for creative writing projects and read closely from the set text, Atlantic Drift; free digital copies will be made available for participants. Through close reading of this anthology, participants will both develop their own writing and understand further what Ed Dorn called the ‘transatlantic turbine’.
By the end of the course, participants can expect to have produced new work in various forms and poetic modes, developing a further understanding of poetry and how to write about their creative process in a way that corresponds to recent aesthetic and publication models.
Masterclasses are an expanded version of our International Courses, with a much deeper consideration of technical craft and critical theory. These 12-week courses (maximum 10 places) are for advanced students only, and fluency with poetic language and ideas will be assumed. There are no live chats and they are suitable for UK and International students.
Concessions & Accessibility
To apply for a concessionary 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, wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, or require any form of adjustment to access our courses, please email [email protected]. For more information visit our Online Courses page.
Image credit: @steve
About James Byrne 
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James Byrne is a poet, editor, translator, and visual artist living in London. His most recent poetry collection is The Overmind (2024, Broken Sleep Books). Others include Places you Leave (Arc Publications, 2022) and Of Breaking Glass (BSB, 2022). A Selected Poems, Nightsongs for Gaia, is due in 2025. Byrne was the editor of The Wolf, an influential, internationally-minded literary magazine between 2002 and 2017. In 2012, he co-translated and co-edited Bones Will Crow, the first anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry to be published in English (Arc, 2012) and I am a Rohingya, the first book of Rohingya refugee poems in English. Byrne is the International Editor for Arc Publications and co-editor of Atlantic Drift: An Anthology of Poetry and Poetics (Edge Hill University Press/Arc, 2017). His co-translation with the author Ro Mehrooz of Rohingya poems, Poems Written Through Barbed-Wire Fences, was published by Arc in October 2024.
"I am learning the various faces of poetry, connections with other disciplines, discovering new poets."
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