VERVE 2023 Workshops

A chance to write with guidance from some of our amazing VERVE poets

Most of our workshops have Zoom alternatives! Online workshops will be held during the week before the festival and tickets are available on our eventbrite.

February 2023
Feb
17
17
February
2023
Helen Calcutt Workshop – Owning it
Workshop Room 1,

‘Why not say what happened?’ – Robert Lowell Drawing on themes from her next collection, Helen’s workshop will encourage you to write honestly from life’s experiences, and see them as […]

£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
17
17
February
2023
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan Workshop: Writing as Resistence
Workshop Room 2,

Join Suhaiymah in a workshop where we will consider the power of writing as resistance. In this time of worldwide violence and oppression as the consequences of capitalism, racism, misogyny, […]

£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
17
17
February
2023
Helen Mort Workshop: Metaphors We Live By: finding themes and images that inspire you
Workshop Room 1,

Helen Mort’s latest collection The Illustrated Woman (2022) uses the metaphor of tattooing to explore the agency we have over our bodies and the difference between how we want to […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
17
17
February
2023
Will Harris Workshop: Sounds of Words / Words of Sounds
Workshop Room 2,

A communal workshop playing with – and stretching – the links between objects, words and sounds, in which we’ll share stories, listen closely to things, and stay as close as […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2023
Helen Mort Young Person’s Workshop: Having Fun With Poetry (13-19)
Workshop Room 1,

It’s easy to get bogged down in metaphors and punctuation, poetic form and technique. So in this workshop with Helen Mort, we’ll simply be having fun with poetry. Helen will […]

Free
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Feb
18
18
February
2023
Jennifer Wong Workshop: Writing Mothers
Workshop Room 2,

What do we talk about when we talk about mothers? How does one begin to articulate one’s closeness or distance with the mother, and the changing identities and understanding? In […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2023
Scarlett Ward Workshop – A monster in the shape of a woman: poetic retellings of mythological female figures
Workshop Room 1,

A poetry writing workshop that examines the presentation of women figures in retellings of mythology. From witches to goddesses, female archetypes have served to perpetuate patriarchal stereotypes and dictate the […]

£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2023
Kathy Pimlott Workshop – Making the Everyday Sing
Workshop Room 2,

In this generative workshop we’ll look at how very familiar everyday material – kitchen utensils, shops, routine tasks – can become the launchpad into meditations on love, life, death and […]

£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2023
Kim Moore Workshop – The Personal is Political
Workshop Room 1,

If a poem is described as ‘political’, this often conjures up the idea of a rant in the shape of a poem, with the control of language slipping away from […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2023
Nick Makoha Workshop – The Prose Poetry Lab
Workshop Room 2,

We will be testing language in the poetic realm. Focus will be placed on getting the work to a high standard that is of publishable quality. If you are working […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2023
Jay Gao Workshop – Writing Trees & Arboreal Poetics
Workshop Room 1,

In this workshop we will explore how poets have responded to the verdant variousness of trees. We will think about trees ecologically, but also consider how trees might define limits […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2023
Liz Berry Workshop – Family Tree
Workshop Room 2,

How can we use poems to tell the stories of our family? Join Liz Berry for a workshop about lifting your family history to the light with sensitivity and nuance. […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2023
Burning Eye Books Workshop – How to Become a Published Poet
Workshop Room 1,

Burning Eye editors Bridget Hart and Clive Birnie demystify the process of becoming a published poet. The workshop will include practical guides and case studies looking at what different editors […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2023
Jenny Mitchell Workshop – Poetry and Freedom
Workshop Room 2,

Award-winning writer Jenny Mitchell will facilitate a supportive, creative session that looks at how we write about the elusive concept of Freedom. Why would we want/need to do this? What […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2023
Gregory Leadbetter Workshop – Writing In Concert with the Wild.
Workshop Room 1,

In this workshop we’ll explore the poem as a wild place, and the relationship between poetry and the wild life beyond ourselves and our control.How can the will of the […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2023
Andrew McMillan Workshop – Beyond 100 Queer Poems
Workshop Room 2,

Using some of the poems from the acclaimed 100 Queer Poems, join co-editor Andrew McMillan to do some writing and breathe new life into your work. Andrew McMillan’s three collections […]

£16.50 – £22.50
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