Groups

Most of us have grown up made our homes in the suburbs, those small towns, hinterlands and no-places on the ‘edge of the ordinary… cast between what is and what might be’ (Gallery Press on Alan Gillis). But where are ‘the’ suburbs? For many of us our memories are made of these spaces, places that walk a tightrope between urban and rural, dramatic and tedious, often tucked into the corner of larger conurbations, unsure how much of local identity remains. On this course we will explore half-hidden areas of our homelands, their edges and contradictions, peeking under the hood of the overlooked and almost everyday. We will learn from poets who thrived in small towns, suburbs and the bits beyond ring roads and found poetry in allotments, railways, brownfield sites, empty business parks, run-down markets, landfills and driveways. We will also be influenced by those who chaffed in against their surroundings, trapped on the brink of Metroland and the wilds. Taking a lead from poets including Kay Ryan, Glyn Maxwell and Fiona Dowling, we will create our own poems and investigate the secrets of where we have all once lived.

The image is a poem’s engine; for poets, writing fresh and powerful imagery, encouraging the reader to think about the content of a poem in more than one way, is a joyful experience. On this course we’ll look at how poets use figurative language; how to avoid safe/predictable tropes in favour of daring/surprising imagery; the role of the physical senses; simile and metaphor, synecdoche and how/when to use these devices; the role of symbolism in poetry, and how certain poets – e.g. Wallace Stevens – use encoded symbolism in their work; image clusters; the extended metaphor; and audacious metaphors/the conceit. We’ll read lots of examples of published poetry and try different strategies/approaches to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to create whole new ‘image banks’ for new work. And in a first for us – we’re running the same course online and face-to-face at the same time. Face-to-face students will have two intense generation sessions followed by a writing break, and the concluding with a feedback session. You’ll keep in touch between sessions via email or CAMPUS.

Some poetry takes everyday reality as its starting-point in order to reveal something about the world we know. But poetry can equally begin with a ‘what if?’ – it can create unreal or unlikely situations and then, by exploring the consequences of those situations, lead us to unexpected ideas and images.

These ‘what if?’ situations could be described as ‘conceits’ – extended metaphors that bring together disparate ideas, making the poem a kind of literary test-tube.

In this Open Workshop with David Clarke, we will explore how conceits can be used to open up our writing to new ways of imagining, while still remaining rooted in a concern for our human experience of the world. We will think about how the use of conceits can draw in the reader, hold their attention, and keep surprising them until the very end of the poem.

Have you ever thought your poetry could be expressed in a more visual way? Come and see how a poem can catch the eye before it’s read, how all poems, in their spacing, breathing, line breaks and stanza shapes are in fact ‘visual’ and can be expressed in multiple ways. Join us for a ten week course that will be fun, interactive and will finish with a small publication of visual poetry. This course follows on from the Visual Poetry reading course we ran on CAMPUS last term, but you don’t need to have taken that course to enjoy this one.

As developments in technology increase our access to the world, it can often feel like we are losing touch with the bodies we inhabit, and the remarkable functions they provide from moment to moment.

Whilst we often treat pain as an inconvenience to be blanketed over with medication, it can also provide us with a way to get back in touch with the bodily experience, providing new angles for original writing. In this Open Workshop with Daniel Sluman, we will explore pain as an objective sensation that brings us closer to an understanding of the bodies we possess, and new ways of describing it. We will look at how pain has been used by contemporary writers to bring the human body to life, and how we can use similar methods to better understand our physicality, and how it relates to the outside world.

Terrance Hayes said ‘… a stork brings the poems. They are little creatures I have to train and send out into the world.’ If you already know the basics, have a few fledgling poems and are looking for ways to take your work to another level, this course is for you.

This is a three-term course but you can start at the beginning of any term. You will be encouraged to experiment and play and at the same time expand the knowledge of your craft through close readings of published poets and the work of other students.

There will be an emphasis your own writing process and how understanding this can help you develop a style and voice. You’ll explore ways in which you can free your unconscious mind to move towards the poem’s point of discovery. You’ll begin to develop your own methods of working on your poems using your conscious writerly mind to craft, revise and complete them.

Workshops will include writing exercises based on readings of published poems You’ll receive regular feedback on your work and each term will include the close reading of a complete published collection or pamphlet, as a way of examining in depth an individual poet’s style, voice and aesthetic. Where possible, the poet will come and read for us.

We’ll finish the year with a public reading.

A group for poets whose material springs from the social concerns of our times for e.g. environmental, human rights, surveillance culture, nuclear weapons, refugee crisis etc to share their poetry as well as share opportunities for creative campaigning via poetry.

Feedback group that sprang from Dai George’s ’The One and the Many’. We are open to new members by invitation from the group. Our aim is to help improve each other’s writing by offering constructive criticism.

Artists use notebooks to both explore and record their creative journey. These books often become artefacts in their own right, incorporating mixed media, found objects, words and images. This process is something that poets can also benefi t from. On this course you will collect materials to use in creating your own set of poems, producing a handmade book that contains your poem and its unique journey. There will be an exhibition of the books at the end of the course.

This is the third of a trio of student-centred courses designed both for experienced writers looking to widen their repertoire and for beginners looking for a more structured approach to their writing. You will have the opportunity to consider how much of today’s poetry has its roots in the work of innovative poets from the past. Drawing on the work of poets from a wide range of cultures and traditions from the earliest times to the Renaissance, you will continue to develop your individual approach to writing and start to build up a body of creative work with a definite individual identity. Through exercises, reading, writing, group feedback and small group planning sessions, you will be encouraged to construct an independent voice, while maintaining a dialogue with poetic traditions. While students who have completed the courses ‘Developing a Style’ or ‘Defining a Style’ will enjoy this new course, it is also suitable for those seeking a one-term stand-alone course. As this course will contain completely new material it may also be of interest to students who have attended Tim’s courses in previous years.

So you’ve written some poems, and you’d like them to see the world – what next? Over five sessions, we’ll look at what you need to do get your poems into the best possible shape so they catch the eye of magazine editors. From tightening finished poems, through to knowing which publications to read and target, and that old chestnut of what you really should put into your covering letter, your poems will be ready to take their moment on the page – and you’ll support and encourage each other throughout the process. (Rishi was one of the poets who went through our Editor Development Programme with The Rialto magazine, so will be able to give you an up to date editorial perspective.)

In The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction, American poet Dean Young urges us to play apart from obsessions with ‘craft’ when we write. He exclaims ‘We are making birds not birdcages’. Let’s take that as our rallying cry. The lifeblood of these sessions will be encounters with innovative contemporary poems, cycles of generative ‘obstructions,’ and conversations about what you create. Expect that ours will be an unconventional, provocative space devoted to experimentation and the invention of new forms.

Poets typically draw on personal experiences. But how do we do this without slipping into banality and the same old same old? Since Robert Lowell’s Life Studies changed the nature of personal revelation – ‘Yet why not say what happened? ‘ – apparent candour of one sort or another has played a role in shaping twentieth century verse. However, personal writing is not straight forward and it
calls for poetic nerve. It also draws on fictive processes. The act of remembering and editing can create a powerful amalgamation, and truth to experience is not the same as truth. Ultimately we want a good poem! Taking a lead from poets such as Lowell, Ginsburg, O’Hara, Sharon Olds, Hugo Williams, Selima Hill, Michael Hofmann, Fleur Adcock and Andrew McMillan, the sessions will create ample space for presentation and workshopping, feedback, and due attention to editorial processes.

Cambridge poetry – an infection of the cultural body?

We’ve all ended up confronted by that person (let’s call him Bob) at the party who unwittingly has you cornered and is expounding in exceptional detail his life story. You have grown tired though you haven’t spoken the entire time, or even been given the room to form an opinion. It’s OK, Bob, of course, doesn’t need anything from you, he has it all worked out and neatly packaged, you just have to pay attention. Except you don’t. You’ve given up, and when you finally escape, you vow to avoid all future Bobs. Imagine your poem is a party guest. What sort of guest would it be? Would it be a Bob, who shows little regard for engaging its interlocutor, intent instead of conveying, at all costs, its opinion? Would it bore the person with whom it is speaking? Or does it house the capacity for charm, engagement, entertainment. Is it someone who can invite its reader to be part of an interesting conversation? This course intends to confront the social etiquette of poetry, raising questions of a poem’s role in social exchange, its aptitude for fun and pleasure and how to make sure it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

A place for writers/readers interested in Stein’s work with language as sound. A place to explore – play.

A private group for members of the Malika’s Kitchen writing collective.

Poetic aliens, living and writing in Brazil, France, Mexico and Peru!

A private group for Poetry School tutors. Teaching for us currently, or have done in the past? Teaching online or face-to-face courses? Here’s a group in which you can swap notes, advice and ideas with each other. Poetry School staff will also post announcements, updates and items of interest here.

This course will look closely at how poems can be provoked or prompted, considering how ‘constraints’, whether formal or thematic, can actually release and stimulate the imagination. We will explore emulation and modelling from other poems, as well as using other texts (film, music, art) as inspiration. We’ll also consider old and new poetic forms, exploring the link between form and content. This class will involve both writing exercises in class and at home and will offer feedback on participants’ writing alongside the broader discussions.