1:00pm - 3:00pm How can we as poets approach the examination of ‘Space,’ as in the galactic, and ‘space’ which occupies the small gaps or silences in between the spoken and unspoken, through the relationship between word and page? Participants will be invited to explore unique ways of structured storytelling that not only contemplates the […]
3:30pm - 5:30pm Jasmine will take you through a variety of exercises to help you bring out the best in your poems through performance. No two poets perform the same, and you will learn your individual powers as a performer by trying different techniques to draw out the qualities in your individual poems, and by […]
4:00pm - 6:00pm In this time of worldwide violence, oppression, capitalism, racism, misogyny, militarism and more, resistance feels urgent and necessary, but it can also be difficult and overwhelming to know where to start. In this workshop we will explore writing as a medium of disrupting elite discourses, imagining alternative worlds and making space for […]
9:30am - 11:30am “To love is the great amulet that makes this world a garden.” – Robert Louis Stevenson. How might we use poems – those we love and those we write – to make charms and amulets to guide and protect us? Join poet Liz Berry to read, write and use craft (of all […]
10:00am - 12:00pm Using the poems she entered for the 2020 Women Poets’ Prize as a base, Natalie Linh Bolderston will provide an insight into her writing process and how she generates, curates and pieces together the fragments that make up her work. She will lead writing exercises and provide prompts that reflect some of […]
12:00pm - 2:00pm In an intensive, lively two-hour session, poetry dynamo Jo Bell (Kith, How To Be A Poet) presents surefire techniques to correct common weaknesses in poetry. Make your poems powerful and clear without losing strength or subtlety; be bold in editing and refine your bag of tricks to hold the reader’s interest. Buy […]
12:30pm - 2:30pm In this workshop we will delve into our own personal treasure troves of magical thinking – excavating superstitions and superstitious sayings, folk tales that are meaningful to us, rituals, ghost stories and urban legends. Learning from poets like Robin Robertson, Sophie Herxheimer, Sarah Howe and Rachael Allen, we will learn to look […]
2:30pm - 4:30pm Who has ever fallen in love with a poem because they understood it? Poetry is often spoken about as something inaccessible, obscure, difficult to understand, or nonsensical, and as poets we can respond to these negative portrayals defensively, keeping our poems literal, or linear in their thinking. This workshop will explore the […]
3:00pm - 5:00pm Join poet and translator Leo Boix for a creative translation workshop on the Spanish poetry of Argentinian writer Diana Bellessi. During the session you will work as a group to create a new translation of one of Bellessi’s poems. As facilitator and guest translator, Boix will be on hand throughout to offer […]
10:00am - 12:00pm Join For Books’ Sake for a creative writing workshop inspired by intuition, meditation and tarot. We’ll be using imagery and poetry to get writing with confidence, although no prior experience of meditation tools or tarot is necessary, just come along and have a go for a relaxing writing session that might just […]
10:30am - 12:30pm Love Sappho, Ovid and Catullus? So does Kostya Tsolakis! In this workshop, Kostya – editor of harana poetry, the online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language, and author of Ephebos (ignitionpress, 2020) – will share his favourite contemporary responses to Ancient Greek and Roman poets, including […]
12:30pm - 2:30pm Taking inspiration from Kenneth Koch’s poem of the same name – during this workshop we will examine hidden-ness, misdirection and disappearing in poetry. We will look at the use of titles to cast a different light on a poem, poems with a secret or an epiphany folded inside them and poems where […]
1:00pm - 3:00pm Climate change is urgent and poets are seeking new approaches to nature writing, ways which are not always white-centric. We can no longer reliably portray the natural world as a source of permanence and solace. We will focus on what the new nature poets are doing in the UK to refresh the […]
3:00pm - 5:00pm "I am not the “I” in my poems. “I” is the net I try to pull me in with." – Toi Derricotte. Who are you? Who is the speaker of your poems? In this workshop, we’ll use the ‘I’ as a disguise, a net, a shield, an illusion, a dare. We’ll […]
3:30pm - 5:30pm Our bodies are often a site of conflict and discontent. This creative writing workshop will focus on nurturing positive re/connection and bringing the corporeal into the craft of writing. Participants will look at poetry centring the body/bodily experiences, examine techniques to bring those onto the page, and use writing exercises and […]
“…poems are like dreams: in them you put what you don’t know you know.” Adrienne Rich This workshop explores how embracing the unknown can challenge our preconceptions and certainties, allowing for contradictions, tensions and paradoxes. Through group discussions, writing prompts and a close reading of Adrienne Rich’s poem ‘Diving into the Wreck’, we will reassess […]
How can we as Poets approach the examination of both Space as in the galactic, and the space which occupies the small gaps or silences in between the spoken and unspoken, through the relationship between word and page? Tickets:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scarlett-ward-workshop-space-space-the-infinity-of-a-blank-page-tickets-395819174807
What truths are your poems telling? If not for your poems, what truths would never be spoken at all? In this workshop, we’ll chart a course for radical honesty in verse, finding stronger roots for your poems to anchor themselves. We’ll focus on work by female Caribbean poets Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné and Safiya Sinclair, drawing on […]
Gifts are often objects that are loaded with emotional weight and memory – the kind that can engender powerful lyric poetry, anchored in concrete detail. This workshop aims to harness the power of gift-giving and -receiving to enable writers to render familiar objects as fresh and surprising stimulus for uncommon poetry. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dzifa-benson-workshop-the-gift-tickets-395838422377
This workshop looks at the art of revising myths through poetry, exploring the approach taken by poets such as Fiona Benson, Jericho Brown and Leila Chatti. Learn to find the mythological in the mundane and use it to charge your poetry. You do not need to have an extensive knowledge of myths, just be willing […]
In this session, Kostya will guide you through the labyrinth of possibilities when translating queer experiences across borders and between languages. Are there ‘untranslatable’ words? Can we translate non-English queer language while retaining its charge? What can learn from other artforms that deal with this issue? And how can we apply historical and personal experiences […]