Poetry Workshop
This eight-week course is designed to introduce participants to new and alternative methods of writing poetry in a friendly and relaxed environment. It is ideal for poets of all levels of experience, from those hoping to get over the hurdle of putting pen to paper to those seeking to experiment with their work and break out of old writing routines.
We will draw on generative and experimental approaches such as working from source material and the work of other poets, as well as using pre-made forms and ‘found’ texts. Through the use of constraints we will explore how placing rules, restrictions or boundaries on our work can enhance creativity and focus. Besides creating new poems through set tasks, participants will workshop their own work, receiving feedback from both the group and the course tutor. By the end of this course participants will have drafted a number of poems and have a toolkit of approaches and prompts to help them overcome the blank page, or come at their writing from a different, more playful angle.
The Hastings Writers Workshop poetry workshop takes place in the upstairs studio space at the lovely Electric Palace cinema in the heart of Hastings Old Town. As with all our workshops, members are entitled to a 15% discount at the fabulous Hastings Bookshop during and for one month after the programme.
Our most recent poetry workshop has now finished - to join our mailing list and keep up to date with future workshop programmes, please get in touch via the contact page or at james@hastingswritersworkshop.com.
Course Tutor
Jen Calleja is a writer, literary translator, and publisher based in Hastings. Her books include Vehicle: a verse novel (Prototype, 2023), the poem sequence Dust Sucker (Makina Books, 2023), the poetry pamphlet Hamburger in the Archive (if a leaf falls press, 2019) and the poetry collection Serious Justice (Test Centre, 2016). She was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019 for her translation of Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands (Serpent’s Tail) and was the inaugural Translator in Residence at the British Library (2017-2019). She has taught for Arvon Foundation, The Poetry School, The British Library, and New Writing South, among others, and is co-founding publisher at Praspar Press, a small press for Maltese literature in English and English translation.
Photo: Robin Silas Christian