Adult Courses

As Mayou Angelou once said, 'Poetry can tell us what human beings are. It can tell us why we stumble and fall and how, miraculously, we can stand up'. Through inspiring examples and exciting exercises, this course will give you a taste of the best and most uplifting contemporary poetry and help you develop your own writing voice and practice. You will explore different forms, styles, techniques and influences, cover tips and pitfalls, but the overall aim is to free your imagination, creating poems that speak from the heart and soul, with the potential to make a difference.

'Poetry can tell us what human beings are. It can tell us why we stumble and fall and how, miraculously, we can stand up.' Maya Angelou

Through inspiring examples and exciting exercises, this workshop will give you a taste of the best and most uplifting contemporary poetry, and help you develop your own writing voice and practice. We will explore different forms, styles, techniques, influences, cover tips and pitfalls, but the overall aim is to free your imagination, creating poems that speak from the heart and soul, with the potential to make a difference.

Recommended reading:

Jo Bell & Jane Commane: How to Be a Poet (Nine Arches Press, 2017)

Jo Bell: 52: A Year of Poetry Writing Prompts (Nine Arches Press, 2015)

Neil Astley: Staying Alive, Bring Alive, Being Human, Anthologies of Contemporary Poetry (Bloodaxe press)

Please bring paper and writing material.

Rosie Jackson

BA Hons Class 1 ENglish and Comp Lit DPhil York

About Rosie

ROSIE JACKSON lives in Frome, Somerset, where she teaches creative writing workshops and works in arts and health. She has a first-class degree from the University of Warwick, a D. Phil. from York, and has taught in many universities and educational settings, including the University of East Anglia, Nottingham Trent, Bristol UWE, Bethesda Writers' Centre Washington DC, Skyros Writers' Lab, Cortijo Romero, and the Open College of the Arts. Her poetry pamphlet What the Ground Holds(Poetry Salzburg, 2014) was followed by her first collection The Light Box(Cultured Llama, 2016). Her poetry has been published in Acumen, Ambit, Domestic Cherry, Frogmore Papers, High Window, Poetry Ireland Reiew, Poetry Salzburg Review, Scintilla, Tears in the Fence, The Interpreter's House, other journals and anthologies; set for GCSE; used for a sculpture by Andrew Whittle in the grounds of a Dorchester hospital; and she has collaborated with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. With Dawn Gorman she won the Hedgehog Pamphlet competition 2019; won 1^st prize in the Poetry Space competition 2019, 1^st prize and the Hilly Cansdale award at Wells 2018, 2^ndprize at Torbay 2018, 1^st prize in the Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition 2017, 3^rd prize Hippocrates Open 2017, Hilly Cansdale Award Wells 2015, 1^st prize Bath 2015, 2^nd Prize Battered Moons 2015, 1^st and 2^nd prizes Berkshire Festival, 2016 and 2017, 2^ndprize Havant Literary Festival, and has been widely commended at Bridport and elsewhere. She was a Hawthornden fellow 2017. Her books of prose include Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion; Frieda Lawrence; The Eye of the Buddha (fiction); Mothers Who Leave and she has won awards for her short stories. The Glass Mother: A Memoir was published by Unthank Books in 2016. www.rosiejackson.org.uk