Poetry School Articles
Sarah Howe – T.S. Eliot Writers’ Notes
Welcome to our Writers’ Notes for the 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist. These are educational resources for poets looking to develop their practice and learn from some of contemporary poetry’s most exciting and accomplished voices. Here’s Sarah Howe on her collection Foretokens. Note to Self Foretokens is my second book of poems, and it took ten years…
Sarah Howe
We’re Hiring! – Programmes and Website Administrator
The Poetry School are looking to hire a Programmes and Website Administrator to join our friendly team for a fixed term 12-month period. Programmes and Website Administrator Fixed term, 12 months, full-time. £26,000 per annum. This post is suitable for an experienced arts or education administrator, with CRM and website management experience, looking to join the team of an…
Poetry School
Essential Patterns in Poetry
As part of our Poetry Craft series, Carmen Bugan discusses the essential patterns used in poetry: triolet, rondeau, villanelle, sonnet, sestina, and ballad. Let’s start with the triolet: what makes this form special, and do you have a favourite poem that shows it at its best? Writing a triolet is an excellent way to begin…
Carmen Bugan
Catherine-Esther Cowie – T.S. Eliot Writers’ Notes
Welcome to our Writers’ Notes for the 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist. These are educational resources for poets looking to develop their practice and learn from some of contemporary poetry’s most exciting and accomplished voices. Here’s Catherine-Esther Cowie on her collection Heirloom. A Break from Words During the height of Covid-19, I had just finished my MFA…
Catherine-Esther Cowie
Poetry in the Age of AI
Can AI deepen our understanding of poetry practice? As part of our Poetic Craft series, Hannah Silva discusses how AI has impacted poetry. Do you think poets should be using AI, or writing about it? Or maybe both? The widespread use of large language models (LLMs), and the way they can produce texts that resemble creative writing so quickly makes…
Hannah Silva
Translation as Creative Writing
As part of our Poetry Craft series, Steve Komarnyckyj discusses the craft of translation in creative writing. Do you think every act of writing is a kind of translation? We are all translators. Everything we do is an act of translation. Our brains interpret the sensory data flooding our perceptions. Each of us inhabits a world that we have “translated“…
Steve Komarnyckyj
How to Write About Your Family
In this series, we interview our tutors about poetry and its place in their world. These interviews will cover creative writing tips, excelling in a poetry workshop, building a literary career, and finding your poetic voice. Here’s Kit Griffiths on how to write about your family. When you start writing about your family, what’s the…
kit griffiths
Nick Makoha – T.S. Eliot Writers’ Notes
Welcome to our Writers’ Notes for the 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist. These are educational resources for poets looking to develop their practice and learn from some of contemporary poetry’s most exciting and accomplished voices. Here’s Nick Makoha on his collection The New Carthaginians. Blurring the Boundary Esther Kondo Heller said The New Carthaginians breaks the conventions…
Nick Makoha
Courses for Putting Together a Pamphlet
If you’ve been writing for a while and want to put together a pamphlet or debut collection, we have some advanced courses taught by award-winning poets, as well as workshops that will help you develop your craft and think originally about your voice. Essential Patterns in Poetry Masterclass Test out techniques and explore the repeating…
Poetry School
Queer Ecology in Translation: Tim Tim Cheng reviews ‘for now I am sitting here growing transparent’ by Yau Ching, translated by Chenxin Jiang
Tim Tim Cheng explores a world where endings and beginnings are inseparable in Yau Ching’s for now I am sitting here growing transparent (Zephyr Press, 2025). Bilingual books curate a space of generosity. Placing work in the source language and target language side by side invites cross-cultural exchange. While monolingual readers must navigate unfamiliar sightlines,…
Tim Tim Cheng
What An Indie Publisher Can Teach You About Writing
As part of our Poetry Craft series, Autumn Richardson and Richard Skelton from Corbel Stone Press discuss what an indie publisher can teach you about writing. How has running Corbel Stone Press shaped your perspective on what poetry can do, beyond the autobiographical? Our personal experiences inform every aspect of our lives, so we’re not…
Autumn Richardson and Richard Skelton
Spring 2026 – Quick Course Guide
Our Spring Term is now live! We have a whole host of brilliant tutors and poetry courses ready for you to pick from and, as they tend to sell out really fast, we’ve made this Spring 2026 Quick Course Guide to help guide you to the right course. Online Courses INTERNATIONAL Online courses without Live…
Beth Evans (Poetry School)
How Poets Navigate Plagiarism, Consent, and Authorship
As part of our Poetry Craft series, Sarah Hesketh discusses how poets navigate plagiarism, consent, and authorship. When using real speech in poetry, how do you maintain authenticity without simply reproducing raw material? I suppose I’d immediately like to take issue with that word ‘authenticity’. Poetry that incorporates text that comes from a speech act…
Sarah Hesketh
Who Gets to Write? Class, Work and the Politics of Poetry Today
As part of our Poetry Craft series, Ruth Beddow discusses class, work and the politics of poetry today. Before we talk about whose poetry gets published, promoted or awarded, we need to ask: who gets to write in the first place? A myth of ‘working-class writing’? In recent years, we’ve seen Joelle Taylor (raised in…
Ruth Beddow
How to: Develop Poetic Sensitivity to the Spaces Between
In this series, we interview our tutors about poetry and its place in their world. These interviews will cover creative writing tips, excelling in a poetry workshop, building a literary career, and finding your poetic voice. Here’s Helen Calcutt on how to develop poetic sensitivity to the spaces between. How can poets use the ‘spaces…
Helen Calcutt
How I Did It: Forward Prizes – Michael Mullen on ‘Beithir’
Welcome to our Forward Prizes 2025 ’How I Did It’ series. This year we asked poets shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection to write about the inspiration behind one of the poems from their chosen collection. Here’s Michael Mullen on what inspired them to write the poem ‘Beithir’ in Goonie. Any writer of Scots –…
Michael Mullen
How I Did It: Forward Prizes – Sarah Ghazal Ali on ‘Magdalene Diptych’
Welcome to our Forward Prizes 2025 ’How I Did It’ series. This year we asked poets shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection to write about the inspiration behind one of the poems from their chosen collection. Here’s Sarah Ghazal Ali on what inspired her to write the poem ‘Magdalene Diptych’ in Theophanies. Magdalene at a…
Sarah Ghazal Ali
Why Understanding Music Can Improve Your Poetry Writing
As part of our Poetry Craft series, Tristram Fane Saunders discusses why understanding music can improve your poetry writing. In what ways can poetry be considered a form of music? Listen to a poem in a language that you cannot speak, and very often you’ll come away with a strong sense of the emotion behind…
Tristram Fane Saunders
Connecting with Care through Poetry
In this series, we interview our tutors about poetry and its place in their world. These interviews will cover creative writing tips, excelling in a poetry workshop, building a literary career, and finding your poetic voice. Here’s Suzannah V. Evans on how to connect with care through poetry. Has your experience as a carer, formally…
Suzannah V. Evans
How I Did It: Forward Prizes – Desree on ‘Intruders’
Welcome to our Forward Prizes 2025 ’How I Did It’ series. This year we asked poets shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection to write about the inspiration behind one of the poems from their chosen collection. Here’s Desree on what inspired her to write the poem ‘Intruders’ in Altar. The Prompt The first version of…
Desree
How to: Captivate with Picture Books
In this series, we interview our tutors about poetry and its place in their world. These interviews will cover creative writing tips, excelling in a poetry workshop, building a literary career, and finding your poetic voice. Here’s Kathryn Simmonds on how to captivate with picture books. Are there key differences between writing for adults and…
Kathryn Simmonds
How I Did It: Forward Prizes – Isabelle Baafi on ‘Piggy’
Welcome to our Forward Prizes 2025 ’How I Did It’ series. This year we asked poets shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection to write about the inspiration behind one of the poems from their chosen collection. Here’s Isabelle Baafi on what inspired her to write the poem ‘Piggy’ in Chaotic Good. PIGGY From Horror The…
Isabelle Baafi
How I Did It: Forward Prizes – Catherine-Esther Cowie on ‘Mimorian’
Welcome to our Forward Prizes 2025 ’How I Did It’ series. This year we asked poets shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection to write about the inspiration behind one of the poems from their chosen collection. Here’s Catherine-Esther Cowie on what inspired her to write the poem ‘Mimorian’ in Heirloom. In Another Language ‘Mimorian’ is…
Catherine-Esther Cowie
The Art of Poetic Experimentation: Push Boundaries, Break Forms, Find Freedom
For poets who love to play, innovate, and challenge the limits of form, our experimental poetry courses are an invitation to risk, reimagine, and reinvent. These courses celebrate unpredictability, genre-bending approaches, and wild creative impulses – perfect for those looking to spark something new. Whether you’re working in collage, constraint, visual poetry, or hybrid forms,…
Poetry School
Carol Watts – Laurel Prize: Below the Surface
Welcome to our Below the Surface series for the 2025 Laurel Prize finalists. These pieces shine a light on the creative practice behind these outstanding collections and show how nature and the climate crisis impacted the authors’ processes. Here’s Carol Watts on her collection Mimic Pond. I’ve written poetry as far back as I can remember….
Carol Watts