I’m really excited to be delivering five online creative writing courses in 2025-6! These include three poetry courses: (1) Starting to Write, (2) Experimenting with Form & Technique, and (3) Pushing Poetic Boundaries. There will also be a course on ekphrastic writing, and I posted details about another course (Writing Neurodiversity) a couple of weeks ago. I’ve included a short summary of each course below, with links to find out more information and booking details…

These first two courses are now available for booking!

Inspired by Art: Ekphrastic Poetry & Prose

UPDATE: This course will now take place in summer 2026, starting on 11th May, with 3 live workshops on Wednesday mornings. Booking details here…

This creative writing course will explore the versatility of ekphrasis as a poetic mode that draws inspiration from visual art. Each week we will read and discuss ekphrastic texts, and use writing prompts to inspire new creative work. While the focus of this course will be on poetic ekphrasis, we will also include some discussion of ekphrastic narrative, and short prose forms such as prose poetry and flash fiction. Topics will include: the artist’s life and process, inventing a fictional narrative, the ekphrastic encounter, and ekphrasis as exploration of experience. Students will be encouraged to complete weekly writing tasks, and to provide constructive feedback on each other’s work using an online forum.

Course Content

Week 1: Introducing Ekphrasis. We will reflect on the origins of ekphrasis and consider how it has developed over time. We’ll discuss some of the most famous ekphrastic poems, and reflect on the relationship between word and image. This week includes a 2 hour online workshop to introduce the course.

Weeks 2 and 3: The artist’s life and process. We will read and discuss poems that respond to paintings by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh and Gwen John, reflecting on the similarities between the process of painting and the process of writing. We will explore the ways in which writers have dramatized the lives of these artists through ekphrasis, using ventriloquism and other ekphrastic approaches.

Weeks 4 and 5: Inventing a fictional narrative. We will read and discuss poems and short prose texts that draw out a new narrative from a work of art, inventing new characters and situations. We will also discuss the differences between poetry, prose poetry, and flash fiction, looking at example texts that play with the possibilities of form and genre. At this half-way point in the course, we’ll begin to reflect on the editing and revision process, and we’ll schedule a second live workshop on Teams.

Weeks 6 and 7: The Ekphrastic Encounter. We will discuss ekphrastic texts that engage with the process of viewing art, reflecting on the difference between viewing art online and viewing art in museums. We’ll write from our own perspective as art viewers, and consider the differences in how people respond to art.

Weeks 8 and 9: Ekphrasis as Exploration of Experience. We’ll discuss ekphrastic poems that use visual art as a catalyst for self-reflection, in order to explore, analyse or process personal memories or feelings. Week 9 will include a final live workshop on Teams to celebrate the work produced on the course, draw our ideas together and reflect on next steps, including preparation for the assignment.

Poetry 1: Starting to Write (from 6th October)

Workshops on Wednesdays 10:00-12:00 (8th Oct, 5th Nov, 3rd Dec)

This creative writing course is for people who want to start writing poetry, or for those who are already writing poetry, but would find it helpful to take a fresh look at the nuts and bolts of how poetry works. We will examine and play with basic elements of poetic form and technique, such as white space, line breaks, repetition, rhythm, rhyme, and metaphor. We will seek inspiration from personal experience, and from visual art, and we’ll also reflect on the revision and editing process. Students will be encouraged to complete weekly reading and writing tasks through an online forum, and there will be three live workshops delivered via Teams on 8th Oct, 5th Nov, and 3rd Dec.

Course Content

Week 1: Poem as Experience: Concrete & Sensory Detail

Week 2: Sound, metre, rhythm and rhyme

Week 3: Poetic imagery – metaphor and simile

Week 4: Poetic Form

Week 5:  Line breaks and white space

Week 6: Perspectives & Voices

Week 7: The Editing Process

Week 8: Seeking inspiration from art (ekphrasis)

Week 9: Finishing and Fine-tuning (and Publication Options)

To book a place you need to visit this booking page and click ‘Enrol Now’.

Fee – £140.00. Information about the Fee Waiver Scheme for people living in Wales.

The following courses will be available for booking soon. More details here.

• Poetry 2: Experimenting with Form & Technique (from 1st February)
• Poetry 3: Pushing Poetic Boundaries (from 3rd May)

Writing Neurodiversity: Processing Lived Experience through Poetry (from 27th January) can be booked here.