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Writing Form  – Saturday 26 June 2021, 1–4pm (UK) 

Technically all poetry is formal. Whether you’re writing a sestina, sonnet, a free verse piece, or a lyric essay, there are rules (forms) you must understand and adhere to. In this workshop we’ll be looking at what kind of poems suit which forms. Why does the lyric work so well in couplets? Can anything be written as a villanelle or a ghazal? We’ll be analysing a number of poems all written as formal pieces to ask how they manage to create the experience they do, and if they were organised in another way, would they compromise themselves? 

Danez Smith says they like working in form because they know when they need to end. When I feel myself being taken outside of the poem’s orbit into a field range which may not necessarily benefit the intention, I arrange it around a certain form because at least there I know how far I’m allowed to go. With students, I often encourage the idea of using form to see how a poet can ebb and flow inside a straitjacket. That doesn’t mean you need to stay there, more that you establish a foundation to move around in. Half the skill is being able to dance inside a box.

Max: 25 ppl
Price £20
Duration 3 hours