What Makes a Collection?
From manuscript to collection – what to know as you prepare for submission.
On this practical day, no question is too small or too big. We’ll look at everything from ‘how do I know I’m ready for a collection?’ to ‘Is this a pamphlet or a collection?’ and ‘what are editors looking for?’. We’ll discuss how to research publishers, how to go about submitting, what you should send, and what you should say about yourself and your poetry.
Along the way, Katrina Naomi will also give you tips on making your collection as good as it can be, looking at how to organise the poems, whether to theme or not to theme, and how to pitch your work. We’ll consider collections by Caleb Femi, Cynthia Miller, Abigail Parry, Joelle Taylor, and Jane Yeh, among others, as exemplars of the collection form. Katrina will demystify the whole process of publishing to boost your confidence and will offer honest advice, along with ideas on marketing and publicity.
1 x full day session, running 10.30am–4.30pm (GMT), on 15 Mar 2025. This course will take place at The Bindery, 51 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8HN.
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 In-Person Courses work can be found on the In-Person 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: @avinezzati
About Katrina Naomi 
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Katrina Naomi is an award-winning poet, performer, mentor, and judge. Her fourth poetry collection, Battery Rocks, (Seren, 2024) is the winner of the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors. Katrina’s previous collections have won an Authors’ Foundation Award and Saboteur Award, and she is a recipient of the Keats-Shelley Prize. Katrina’s poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, Open Country, and Poetry Please, and in The TLS, The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation. She has a PhD from Goldsmiths and tutors for Arvon and the Poetry School. Katrina lives in Cornwall www.katrinanaomi.co.uk.
"It is always valuable to share and receive feedback on poems with fellow poets. Their careful reading and responses are precious. Through the Poetry School I have read (and met with in class) a wonderful range of different contemporary poets."
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