Out-Spoken Academy returns for 2025 with some of our most-loved tutors leading online courses, as well as an updated programme aimed at being inclusive, affordable and generative

**PLAYBACK recording-access is available for the Winter 2024-25 Standard and Mini courses and the Creative Non-Fiction Course.**

The Academy Plus programme offers the chance to work with our tutors, Caroline Bird, Jack Underwood and Anthony Anaxagorou, over a longer period at a less intensive pace. The course will run over 9 weeks (Mon 31 March – Mon 26 May) with a two-hour online group workshop each Monday, 7-9pm UK.

Our first four-week online Creative Non-Fiction Course, led by Amy Key and Jenn Ashworth is taking place this March 2025. If you feel you’re ready to push your writing to a new level, or if you’re keen to develop skills and enhance your technique on the page, then these sessions will be invaluable to you. 

With the Playback option you'll receive password-protected links to session recordings on our Vimeo, together with course materials, enabling you to undertake the courses in your own time and on your own schedule. Register now for Playback access to our four-week Mini Course led by Malika Booker and Joelle Taylor, and our six-week Standard course led by our original trio – Jack Underwood, Caroline Bird and Anthony Anaxagorou

Lastly, we understand the financial constraints many are currently faced with, so we have adjusted course fees accordingly and introduced the option to pay in instalments, via Klarna or PayPal Pay in 3, to help spread out costs. Hopefully this will mean more people are able to access our programmes and benefit from the sheer level of expertise, and the number of tuition hours the academy offers. 


Academy Courses – Overview

Academy Plus

Tutors: Caroline Bird, Jack Underwood, Anthony Anaxagorou
Duration: Nine weeks
Dates: Mondays 7–9pm, 31 March – 26 May 2025

Academy Plus: Nine-week Online Poetry Course

** NOTE: This Course is now fully booked. To be kept up-to-date with our Academy Courses, do sign up to our mailing list here. **

The Academy Plus programme offers the chance to continue working with our tutors over a longer period at a less intensive pace with one two-hour group workshop each Monday evening for nine weeks.

The course will run Monday 31 March – Monday 26 May, with Anthony leading weeks 1–3, Jack weeks 4–6, and Caroline weeks 7–9. 


Academy Courses – Playback

Academy – Creative Non-Fiction

Tutors: Amy Key, Jenn Ashworth
Duration: Four weeks, two x 2hr workshop per week
Dates: 3–28 March 2025

Academy – Standard

Tutors: Caroline Bird, Anthony Anaxagorou, Jack Underwood
Duration: Six weeks, two x 2hr workshop per week
Dates: 6 January – 14 February 2025

Academy – Mini

Tutors: Joelle Taylor, Malika Booker
Duration: Four weeks, two x 2hr workshop per week
Dates: 7 – 30 January 2025


NEW!

Pay in interest-free monthly instalments with Klarna or PayPal

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NEW! Pay in interest-free monthly instalments with Klarna or PayPal |


What is Out-Spoken Academy?

Offering intensive poetry and creative writing courses, taught by esteemed poets and writers, taught online in the evenings, Out-Spoken Academy is the perfect opportunity for committed poets to work closely with award-winning tutors in a focused, supportive environment and take their poetry practice to the next stage. We offer our standard Academy Course, with three tutors over six weeks, and our Academy Mini course, where you’ll be taught by two tutors over the course of four weeks. All of our courses are delivered online via Zoom, so you can join from wherever you are in the world!

At the heart of all our courses are the high level of active teaching hours you’ll receive, with multiple workshops each week and individual weekly tutorials, all delivered online. Workshop-based teaching and the high level of contact time means you'll receive plenty of feedback and have the opportunity to connect with your tutors and fellow students.

On both our standard and mini courses you’ll benefit from the varied perspectives and poetics of our tutors, and on the standard course you’ll have a dedicated weekly opportunity to share and feedback on poems in a peer-to-peer environment – in addition to the dedicated online chat space provided. Ongoing resources: at the end of the course you will take away a comprehensive pack of materials as well as password-protected access to recordings of all workshops.   

Our course tutors have tailored integrated course syllabuses to help you develop your practice from first draft to final poems. Throughout the course, tutors will rotate each week, allowing you to benefit from their individual expertise and highly acclaimed perspectives.

If you feel ready to develop your voice and craft through a period of sustained focus with some of the country’s most lauded poets and educators, then register now.


One of the best writing programs I’ve been a part of. Moves beyond the classic model of generative response and highlights the structural elements needed to turn in an image or metaphor, asks why we take these steps in the first place. I owe a lot to it.
— Simon Costello

Academy FAQs