Poetry Unlocked: A Creative Journey (short course)

Grow your confidence in poetry writing with our five-week short course.

Join us on this short course as we read and write poems together, led by local poet Carol Rowntree Jones. In a supportive space, we’ll look at how poems work, what techniques poets use, and how form and content work together.

Working with poetry prompts, we’ll try our hand at writing our own poems, with a ‘light-touch’ sharing of work (if attendees wish). The aim is to grow your enjoyment of poetry and build confidence in your writing.

Open to all students and staff. You do not need any prior experience in writing poetry, just a desire to learn!

It is possible to join the course after the first week.

Course outline:

• Week 1: Coming out of winter, poems and prompts
• Week 2: Poetic form – stanzas, white space, specific forms
• Week 3: Poetic techniques – imagery, metaphor, use of language
• Week 4: Feeling and meaning “Poetry should not mean but be”
• Week 5: Finding joy in the world, paying attention

Course tutor Carol Rowntree Jones won the inaugural Overton Prize with her sequence This is not normal behaviour (published by Lamplight Press, Loughborough University), and her work has been further published in The North, Left Lion, Staple, and various anthologies. One of her writing highlights has been working with Open Doors organisation, leading creative writing sessions in men’s and women’s prisons.

She lives in south Nottinghamshire and is currently working on a creative non-fiction project focused on the National Forest.

There is step free access into Martin Hall and an accessible toilet is located on the ground floor corridor.

If you have any specific access requirements or anything you would like the event organisers to be aware of when running the classes, please let them know via the booking form or by emailing LUArts@lboro.ac.uk in advance.