Writing Poetry (Online) 2022-2023

(20 weeks, one evening per week)

This course will boost your writing in a friendly, structured environment. It is suitable for both new and more experienced writers. In practical work guided by your tutor, you will explore the effects of techniques in published poetry and learn how to strengthen your own poetry through an understanding of craft. You will learn creative and critical skills and develop a stronger individual style.

The Move to Online Learning

The technology is now available for us to move confidently into online learning. Video conferencing allows us to maintain the interactive element we feel is crucial to successful teaching. We have discovered that in many areas it offers effective approaches to teaching beyond those available in the traditional classroom. We are also excited at the prospect of working with writers from more diverse backgrounds, physically, geographically and culturally.

In the week before the beginning of your course you will be invited to attend Zoom familiarisation sessions if you have not taken an online learning course before.

Overview

This course will:

• look at a range of poetic techniques such as compression, imagery, texture, line breaks, traditional forms, rhyme and metre.
• consider the value of poetry in the contemporary world and our relationships with it.
• cover a variety of topics such as writing practice, sound and texture, form and metre, imagery and editing
• read and discuss works by poets such as Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Bernadette Mayer, Amiri Baraka, Frank O’Hara and Liao Yiwu
• discuss methods of presenting poetry including publishing, performance and mixed media

As well as considering practical aspects of writing technique and exploring them through your own writing in class, you will be asked to bring in up to 50 lines of your poetry for constructive feedback from your tutor and fellow writers. Each student will workshop poems like this twice on the course, both times receiving constructive and detailed feedback from other members of the writing group and your tutor, who will provide written comments. You will have the opportunity to hand in poetry of up to 100 lines at the end of the course. This work will be read by your tutor, annotated and returned with supportive feedback both on your strengths and on how your use of poetic techniques might be enhanced.

Your Learning Space

Each writing group on the Creative Writing Programme has its own course page on our website. Once logged in to your course you will have access to course outlines, supporting seminar notes and a Writer’s Forum where you can chat with other writers in your group. Your tutor will add materials to your course page as the course progresses. Links for your online classes will be placed on this page. To access your online class, simply click on the link provided and your Zoom class will open on your desktop where you will be able to see your tutor and the other members of your group.

It is now a standard requirement that writers on writing programmes use computers for communication and the production of work. This has become more important now that online learning is being used more extensively. Writers should ensure that they have access to a desktop computer with a video camera and good internet connection.

What is required of me?

You will need to be able to make a six-month commitment. Over these six months you will need to organise a minimum of six hours per week for reading and the development of writing activities and exercises: this includes seminar time, writing time and reading time.

How are seminars structured?

Each weekly online or face to face seminar runs for two hours. Seminars will include a mix of discussion of work you have written whilst on the course and the discussion of published texts, group work, tutor led feedback and taught sessions.

Please ensure that you have read our Terms and Conditions. For further information on this course or our other programmes contact

Mark Slater
mark.slater@creativewritingprogramme.org.uk