Date/Time
Date(s) - Wed 7th May - Fri 30th May, 2025
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Poetry for all! Find your poetic voice and gain clarity on the whats and whys of poetry
Join poet Ella Frears online in a small group of 12 participants for an intensive month of workshops designed to get you into (and clued-up on) poetry in its various forms. Poetry can sometimes seem impenetrable or mysterious like there’s a special code you have to crack or some prior knowledge you need to have in order to read and write it. Forget all that! Together we’ll look carefully at different elements of poetry writing, demystifying things like line breaks, shape, rhythm, rhyme, voice, language, and form. You will write new poems – trying on these techniques, seeing how they feel and exploring what they can do for you and your work.
This is not a beginners’ course exactly (though beginners welcome!), this is a course for those who want to write poetry but don’t know where to start, for people who already write it but feel nervous, excluded, overwhelmed, or out of their depth, and for anyone in a writing slump. It’s for those from other disciplines who are curious about what poetry could do for them and their practice – maybe you’re a novelist, or a filmmaker, or a printmaker, or a comedian, or a geographer – join us! Basically it’s for anyone who would like to write in a low-pressure, informative and fun space where questions are welcome and poetic experimentation is encouraged.
Moniack in a Month: Demystifying Poetry includes:
- a short introductory welcome session
- four stimulating online workshops, preceded by optional drop-in social time
- one 30-minute tutorial
- a final ceilidh session – sharing of work
- Contact and support from your community of writers via Google Classroom (optional)
- Drop-ins before each workshop to help you get to know your group (optional)
- Support from your Moniack Mhor host
Ella’s workshops will focus on the following themes:
Workshop 1 – Getting Started
Ways into poetry, tackling the blank page, different beginnings
Workshop 2 – Form
What kind of rules might a poet decide to impose and why? Thinking about shape and music
Workshop 3 – Form continued
More rules … and what happens if you break them.
Workshop 4 – Who are you?
How does one write authentically? What kind of poet are YOU?
Timetable
Week 1 Wednesday 7 May 18:30–21:00 Welcome Session and Workshop 1
Week 2 Wednesday 14 May 19:00–21:00 Workshop 2
Week 3 Wednesday 21 May 19:00–21:00 Workshop 3
Week 4 Wednesday 28 May 19:00–21:00 Workshop 4
Week 4 Friday 30 May 19:00–21:00 Ceilidh
Tutorials
Your one-to-one tutorial with Ella will be scheduled when the course starts and will most likely take place in weeks 2 or 3.
Tutor
Ella Frears’ collection Shine, Darling (Offord Road Books, 2020) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. Her most recent book Goodlord (Rough Trade Books, 2024) which takes the form of one long email to an estate agent, was shortlisted for The Forward Prize and the Sky Arts ‘The Times Breakthrough Artist’ Award. Ella is a current Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art and hosts chat and music show Tears for Frearson Soho Radio.
Fees
The full fee for this online course is £360. A deposit of £100 is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £260 is due six weeks before the course begins.
Bursaries are available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments, please email online@moniackmhor.org.uk to enquire.
All activity takes place on Zoom, and workshops include a short break. Moniack Mhor staff will be on hand to support you during your course.
For more information please email online@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements when working online so we can do our best to support you. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.