Starting Monday 19 September, I’ll be teaching an online course with the Blues Studio, an intensive 3-week course riffing on sadness & grief and joy & happiness.

In this Studio course, we’ll be looking at The Blues — that repurposing of sadness & grief into joy and celebration. We’ll find inspiration from blues rhythms and verses, starting with the traditional blues form and then working through a series of exercises that explode the blues in interesting and innovative new ways, while still encompassing all those things that make the blues what it is: melancholy yet soulful, a way of reflecting on emotional pain with heightened heart and music. When poets have radially experimented with the sonnet beyond recognition – why not the blues? From the prison poems of Etheridge Knight, to the Stax-influenced work of Cornelius Eddy, to the surreal and celebratory work of Mary Ruefle we’ll look at how the blues has influenced poetry and will influence yours.

Poetry Studios are three-week long intensive courses. Reading material will be distributed before the course begins. There are no live chats so they are suitable for both UK & International students. 

For more information visit our Online Courses page.