Photos by Luke Witcomb, Suzi Corker and others
Workshops
I love developing new workshops ​​tailored to an organisation's brief, and work with young people (KS3+) and adults. Get in touch to find out more about rates and how I could work with your group.
Some previous themes I've explored in workshops include...
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Writing home and community for Spread the Word
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Nature poetry workshops for Books in the Park, The Writing Squad and Poets for the Planet, writing against traditional nature poetry
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Exploring the boundaries between prose(,) poetry and the lyric essay with The Writing Squad
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A four-week course on the surreal with Creative Future
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A zine-making workshop highlighting women poets with Hong Kong International Literary Festival
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Writing in-betweenness with Queer Circle and fourteen poems
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Collaborative translation workshops with the Poetry Translation Centre
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Workshops with schools and young people have included...
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Multilingual poetry with primary schools for 1000 Words for Belonging​​
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Exploring Virginia Woolf for the Royal Society of Literature with sixth formers in Tower Hamlets
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Developing the Young Critics Scheme for The Poetry Society and T. S. Eliot Prize, supporting 18-25s to review the Prize shortlist via video
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Opium, Keats and poetry for Poetry vs Colonialism
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'There's A Zoo In My Head' - writing animals with children for Milton Keynes Literature Festival
Here's what participants had to say...
"Seriously I am GUTTED this class is over. It has been life changing. Helen was absolutely FANTASTIC. I cannot emphasise enough how powerful this has been for me, and how important these four weeks have been. [...] Helen is the best teacher ever. She lights up poetry like electricity lights up a dark room."
"[The] tutor catered for diverse group and the exercises and prompts allowed for all to take part and read sections willingly. The session gave me time to focus and write, read out loud in a group which I hadn't done in a long while and went home to write more. Also tips given on how to improve writing and introduced to different styles of writing poetry which I can explore."
"Helen handled the very mixed levels of experience within the group brilliantly and was a super warm and engaging tutor. [...] I got more from the course than I was expecting to and now feel confident to experiment with work that falls on the edges of what a poem is/could be. [...] I would definitely attend a course run by Helen again."