Prose for Poets, Poets for Prose
Explore how the world of prose can offer fresh new perspectives on your poetry and vice versa.
On this course, over 5 fortnightly sessions, we’ll take inspiration from prose poems, lyrical prose, flash fiction, and everything in-between! Each session we’ll look at the overlaps and similarities between a poem and a piece of prose and also think about the contrasts and differences between them. You’ll then have the opportunity to experiment with these ideas and techniques in your own writing, exploring character, voice, narrative, dialogue, letters, repetition, rhythm, and much more!
From Claudia Rankine’s searing lyrical prose to Virginia Woolf’s battle between ‘Green’ and ‘Blue,’ we will draw inspiration from compelling works in order to push your writing to a new level. We will examine texts by authors such as Ocean Vuong, Fiona Mozley, Geoffrey Chaucer, Elizabeth Bishop, Ella Frears, Gboyega Odubanjo, and Mosab Abu Toha.
Through a series of practical tasks, inspiring texts and creative prompts, we will experiment together to create new writing. You will come away with new and workshopped poems and stories, and fresh new ideas and techniques.
5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 1 October 2025. No live chats. Suitable for 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: @fiona-murray
About Rachel Bower 
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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, 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 White Review, Magma, The Rialto and Stand. 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.
"It helped me grow in confidence as other people read and commented on my poetry. I had never had that before. A huge shift forward!"
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