Masterclass: poetry (a year-long workshop)

What is the course about?

This course is designed to support advanced and professional poets who are working on projects with a view to publication. Selected students will enrol for three terms. This course challenges students to explore new ways of working with language, form and structure in their poetry.

This course is open for enrolment by application only. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview for a place. It is suitable only for poets who have advanced workshop experience and/or a history of publication. Writers are invited to submit details of their writing background and workshop experience, as well as three sample poems. Please click "Start Assessment" to begin your submission.

Deadlines for this course are as follows:
Applications due: 25 August 2024
Shortlisted candidate interviews: 13 September 2024

The application deadline has passed.

The Tutor
Dr Fran Lock is the author of numerous chapbooks and thirteen poetry collections, most recently Hyena! (Poetry Bus Press, 2023), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2023, and 'a disgusting lie': further adventures through the neoliberal hell-mouth (Pamenar Press, 2023). White/ Other (87 Press, 2022), a collection of hybrid lyric riff, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Fran was the Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow at Cambridge University (2022-23), researching feral subjectivity through the lens of the medieval Bestiary. Fran is a Commissioning Editor and Maid of All Work at the radical arts and culture cooperative Culture Matters, where she edited the mammoth anthology The Cry of the Poor (2021) and launched the Culture Matters Pamphlet Series in 2023. She is a member of the new Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, and she edits the Soul Food column for Communist Review.

What will we cover?

Topics will include but are not limited to:
- Poetic form - constructing and deconstructing
- The music of the poem
- Titles
- Line breaks
- Editing
- The lyric I
- Publications - strategies for structuring a book or pamphlet.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

- Redraft your poetry to a more advanced standard incorporating techniques explored in class and feedback received
- Participate constructively in a workshop setting
- Respond to and assess poetry with critical insight.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

This is an advanced poetry writing course. It is suitable only for poets who have advanced workshop experience and/or a history of publication.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

The course will include a mix of tutor led discussion, workshop readings, critical feedback from the class on your own poems, tutor feedback and discussions of theory and structure.

All writing courses at City Lit will involve an element of workshop. This means that students will produce work which will be discussed in an open and constructive environment with the tutor and other students. The college operates a policy of constructive criticism, and all feedback on another student’s work by the tutor and other students should be delivered in that spirit.

For classes longer than one day regular reading and writing exercises will be set for completion at home to set deadlines.

City Lit Writing endeavours to create a safe and welcoming space for all and we strongly support the use of content notes in our classes. This means that learners are encouraged to make their tutor and classmates aware in advance if any writing they wish to share contains material that may be deemed sensitive. If you are unsure about what might constitute sensitive content, please ask your tutor for further clarification and read our expectations for participating in writing courses at City Lit.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

Please bring a notebook and pen or pencil with you to class. You will need to bring copies of your poems on request.

Please note that an instalment plan is available for this course, and students can pay the course fee on a termly basis.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

City Lit has a range of poetry and writing courses on offer.

All students are invited to join us at Late Lines, our regular performance night for City Lit writers. Students are also encouraged to submit their work to Between the Lines, our annual anthology of creative writing. For the latest news, courses and events, stay in touch with the Department on Facebook and Twitter.