Poetry School
Pathways Through Poetry with The Poetry School
£5,000 will enable 5 gifted, under-represented poets to access our new Pathways Through Poetry programme, through fully sponsored places and, in so doing, imbue the poetry landscape with vital new voices. By ‘under-represented poets’ we mean talented creatives who face barriers to opportunities due to mental health issues, physical health/disability, sensory impairment, learning disabilities, neurodivergence, substance misuse, survivors of abuse, working class backgrounds, and those from the LGBTQIA+, and Black, Asian, minority ethnic or traveler communities.
Situation
The UK poetry scene is thriving but dominated by an affluent demographic and also features multiple barriers to access, which impact poets from underrepresented backgrounds and communities. Reciprocally, the Poetry School has a long-established base of advanced students – in the 24–25 financial year only 1.6% of our students identified themselves as ‘beginners’. The Pathways Through Poetry programme will discover, and open access for, talented voices in need of dedicated tutoring, development, and encouragement to learn poetic craft and see their voices as integral to the contemporary poetry landscape.
Solution
Pathways Through Poetry is a new two-year programme providing dedicated tuition in poetry craft at The Poetry School. The programme provides students with the cultural tools to navigate the world of poetry, from literary terms to contemporary thinkers, especially for those for whom formal university education has been missed or a barrier; it creates a nurturing community to develop students’ poetic voices, as well as teaching them how to give constructive feedback on the poetry of their peers.
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