Course Quick Guide — Spring 2019

London

Workshops: One and two day intensive classes

The Light Room: Poetry & Photography’s Intersections with SJ Fowler
Explore the light and dark of poems to develop new ways of seeing

Come Back Early: Revisiting and Revising with Penny Boxall
Find ways of turning a fresh pair of eyes on what we do.

After Arcadia: Cy Twombly with Tamar Yoseloff
Borrow Twombly’s techniques to generate new poems.

After Arcadia: Ian Hamilton Finlay with Tamar Yoseloff
Apply the active, integrated practice of art-making to your poems

Already Inside: Masterclass with Sean O’Brien
Write poems with a rich inner life and sound internal logic.

Calling Forth: Direct Address / Apostrophe with Phillis Levin
Explore the power of the vocative or direct address in poetry.

Origins of the Golem with Karen Whiteson
Trace the generative parallels between the Judaic golem and writing poetry.

WRITE AHEAD: Free Introductory Workshop with Ella Frears
Want to be a poet? Go Write Ahead.

Write into the Territory with Vahni Capildeo
Rewrite the explorer’s handbook on a liberating poetic adventure.

Technicians of the Sacred: The Poem as a Magical Event with Sascha Akhtar
Charge your poems with the ancient power of charm, spell, hymn and hex

Short Courses: One term courses over five or ten sessions

The Wood for the Trees: Significant Poets of the British Isles with Glyn Maxwell
Explore forty poets from Old English to the mid-twentieth century.

What Is a Poem? with Chrissy Williams
Interrogate the boundaries of the genre in these friendly, fruitful workshops.

Downriver with Simon Barraclough
Navigate the secrets of rivers real and imagined.

Nothing Beyond Routine Greatness: Speechwriting and Poetry with Alex MacDonald
Borrow the tools and tricks of oration to deliver persuasive poems.

Three Term Courses: The second term of our flagship year-long courses (3 x 10 week terms). These courses are priority booking only (for continuing students) until 12th November.

The Poet’s Toolkit (Spring 2019) with Shazea Quraishi
Explore poetry’s inner workings, hone your craft, and take a close look at various forms and techniques to help your poems achieve lift-off.

Pamphlet / Portfolio (Spring 2019) with Wayne Holloway-Smith
Take your work to the next level and develop a group of poems into a manuscript

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (Spring 2019) with Tim Dooley
A weekly workshop for poets looking to develop their individual voice and technique, run by the inimitable Tim Dooley.

Poem, Prompt, Pick & Mix (Spring 2019) with Jacqueline Saphra
Mix up your writing and learn new skills and techniques with one of our most experienced tutors

First Encounters (Spring 2019) with Meryl Pugh
Don’t know where to start? Take your first steps into the world of poetry with Meryl Pugh.

Saturday Sessions (Spring 2019) with Ros Barber
Set aside one Saturday a month exclusively for your writing with this serious and supportive workshop.

Advanced Poetry Workshop (Spring 2019) with Richard Price
Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in one of our flagship Advanced Poetry Workshops

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests 1 with Kathryn Maris (Spring 2019)
One of our flagship advanced workshops, with the added perk of special guests each term.

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Special Guests 2 with Kathryn Maris 2 (Spring 2019)
One of our flagship advanced workshops, with the added perk of special guests each term.

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron (Spring 2019)
Develop your writing through discussion and feedback in this advanced workshop with Forward Prize-winning poet Sasha Dugdale

Bristol

The Art of the Sonnet with William Wootten 
Explore a rich variety of sonnets and near-sonnets.

Exeter

The Poetic Sequence with Miriam Darlington
Find out why and how poets group their poems, and what makes a successful grouping.

Birmingham 

Poetry as a Witness with Roy McFarlane
How do we bear witness in the re-telling of events?

Online Interactive Courses: Our flagship ten-week online courses with live chats

The God in the Forest: Nature Mysticism with Seán Hewitt
Awaken the mysterious, divine power of rocks, rivers, birds, trees, ourselves.

Whole Trees with their Bones: Botany & Poetry with Sarah Byrne
Become plant collectors and enlarge the meaning of our natural world(s)

A Dweller on the Plains: The Poetry of Walking with Rachel Piercey
Don your hiking boots and discover new poetry pathways.

Family Politics with Christina Thatcher
Probe the (dys)functions and politics of family life.

Voicing Rootlessness: Writing Beyond Exile with André Naffis-Sahely
Write poems of connection in an age of mass uprooting and movement.

Someone Else’s Shoes: Poetic Monologue with Jonathan Edwards
Expand your voice with the thoughts, lives and feelings of others.

Online International Courses: Online courses without live chats, suitable for students in all time zones

Out of the Ordinary with David Tait
To live a normal life, that’s where the poetry is.

Writing Coastlines with JR Carpenter
Craft poems on the ever-shifting edges of water and land.

20 Sonnets with Richard Georges
Read 15 sonnets and write 5 over the course of 10 weeks.

Turning Towards, Turning Away: Ekphrastic Poetry with Tishani Doshi
Narrate, reflect on and articulate great works of visual art.

Speaking in Tones: Crafting Musical Poetry with Jodie Hollander
Craft musical poems and investigate how sound can work in the poetic line.

Transreading Courses: Read poems translated to English, English-language poems inhabiting other cultures, and multilingual poems. 

Fair Field: How to Write Like a Medieval with Tom Chivers
Fashion epic, neo-medievalist re-tellings from the earliest English poetry

To be Unhomed: Reading and Writing (as) Wretched Strangers with Wanda O’Connor
“Poems permit human crossings impossible by other means” – JT Welsch

Transreading John Berger with Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese
Compose poems as small pockets of resistance

Online Studios: Three week intensive courses focussing on writing rather than feedback

Pareidolia Studio with Patrick Wright
Unlock the potential of your surroundings with creative mis-perception.

Only Love Studio with Leah Umansky
Write poems straight from the heart

Where No Poem Has Gone Before: Science Fiction Studio with Callie Gardner
Explore distant planets, future cities, and the furthest reaches of human imagination

Creative Response Studio: Finding Our Why with Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Apply best practice to poetry commissions and residencies.

Online Masterclasses: Advanced and in-depth courses on craft and theory

Liberating Poetic Chaos with Steve Ely
Create true and original art out of that which was unspoken, formless and void.

Short Short Poems: White Space and Silence with Tania Hershman
Leave no word unturned.

Online Feedback: Receive thoughtful critiques of 5 poems

Fortnightly Feedback with Will Harris
Knock those loose poems into shape with some concentrated feedback.