This workshop will examine how the poem can be space of tonal complexity, contradiction or clarity. We will look at humour in poetry, and how it often arises out of embarrassment, shame or confrontations with darkness. We will look at how poems can shift from the surreal or absurd to the serious, sad or sublime, and also the value of self-amusement and play as an interrogative stance, that can reveal deeper, personal or philosophical truths. We will also look at poems written without irony or polytonality, that are instead committed to their gravity throughout. By exploring this terrain through timed exercises, close reading and discussion, this workshop will deepen your understanding of complex tonal features like subtext, irony, contiguity, connotation, and humour, and help you to develop your own poetic voice through practical exercises aimed at providing you with new techniques and strands to your work.

Price £30
Duration 3 hours

Playback

If you are unable to attend this workshop, we’re pleased to be able to make a session recording available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

Purchase Link

When you purchase this item, you will be directly emailed a link to a document for downloading. This document contains the zoom link for the session. Please note that you should download this document within 24 hours of opening the link otherwise it expires (if you do have any issues with this please email press@outspokenldn.com)

Zoom Recording

Please note that this Zoom session will be recorded. A playback link will be sent afterwards to all participants in that session. Password-protected playback links are also available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

This workshop explores how poets draw on myth, personal narrative, history, and cultural memory to create powerful and resonant work. Participants will engage with a range of texts, writing exercises, and discussions designed to help them develop their own myth-making practice and discover new ways of transforming lived experience into poetry.

Price £30
Duration 3 hours

Playback

If you are unable to attend this workshop, we’re pleased to be able to make a session recording available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

Purchase Link

When you purchase this item, you will be directly emailed a link to a document for downloading. This document contains the zoom link for the session. Please note that you should download this document within 24 hours of opening the link otherwise it expires (if you do have any issues with this please email press@outspokenldn.com)

Zoom Recording

Please note that this Zoom session will be recorded. A playback link will be sent afterwards to all participants in that session. Password-protected playback links are also available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

How can poems be fractals - capable of embodying both part and whole? What threads can link even the most disparate of ideas together across a book? Thinking with the format of pamphlet or collection in mind, this session explores how we can experiment with the arrangement of the poems that we already have, as well as how to write into the spaces of poems that are still to come.

Price £30
Duration 3 hours

Playback

If you are unable to attend this workshop, we’re pleased to be able to make a session recording available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

Purchase Link

When you purchase this item, you will be directly emailed a link to a document for downloading. This document contains the zoom link for the session. Please note that you should download this document within 24 hours of opening the link otherwise it expires (if you do have any issues with this please email press@outspokenldn.com)

Zoom Recording

Please note that this Zoom session will be recorded. A playback link will be sent afterwards to all participants in that session. Password-protected playback links are also available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

In this workshop session we'll be checking in with a poetics of kitsch ephemera and schlocky body horror, as we brave the squishy, pinkly-terrifying realm of the "monstrous cute". Here, we will explore how poets as diverse as Dorothy Molloy, Aase Berg, Chelsey Minnis, Cathy Park-Hong, and Harry Josephine Giles deploy cuteness towards ambivalent and grotesque ends, speaking back to notions of genre, gender, class and kind. We will use the work of these poets as a spur to our own monstrous high-camp inventions. Saturated palettes at the ready! Swap subtly for sequins! And brace for impact.

Price £30
Duration 3 hours

Playback

If you are unable to attend this workshop, we’re pleased to be able to make a session recording available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

Purchase Link

When you purchase this item, you will be directly emailed a link to a document for downloading. This document contains the zoom link for the session. Please note that you should download this document within 24 hours of opening the link otherwise it expires (if you do have any issues with this please email press@outspokenldn.com)

Zoom Recording

Please note that this Zoom session will be recorded. A playback link will be sent afterwards to all participants in that session. Password-protected playback links are also available for purchase for limited duration viewing.

** This listing is for access to the video recording of the workshop only. If you would like to register to attend the workshop on Saturday 12 September 2026, view the listing here: Online Workshop: Are you being serious? with Jack Underwood

If you are unable to attend the online workshop on the day, we’re pleased to make available a playback link to the video recording of the session for standalone purchase.

Playback Access

Once you have purchased the Playback, you will receive a link to a document download which includes the link and password for the recording together with the materials from the workshop.

Please note that the password-protected recording will be available to watch for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date the video will no longer be available to access.

Once you purchase this item, and after the workshop has taken place, you will be emailed (from press@outspokenpress.com) a link and password to the video recording of the workshop on our Vimeo page. This password-protected video will remain available for viewing for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date it will no longer be accessible.

'Are you being serious?' with Jack Underwood

This workshop will examine how the poem can be space of tonal complexity, contradiction or clarity. We will look at humour in poetry, and how it often arises out of embarrassment, shame or confrontations with darkness. We will look at how poems can shift from the surreal or absurd to the serious, sad or sublime, and also the value of self-amusement and play as an interrogative stance, that can reveal deeper, personal or philosophical truths. We will also look at poems written without irony or polytonality, that are instead committed to their gravity throughout. By exploring this terrain through timed exercises, close reading and discussion, this workshop will deepen your understanding of complex tonal features like subtext, irony, contiguity, connotation, and humour, and help you to develop your own poetic voice through practical exercises aimed at providing you with new techniques and strands to your work.

Duration 3 hours

** This listing is for access to the video recording of the workshop only. If you would like to register to attend the workshop on Saturday 10 October 2026, view the listing here: Online Workshop: The Myth Maker: Reimagining History, Memory and the Self in Poetry. with Nick Makoha

If you are unable to attend the online workshop on the day, we’re pleased to make available a playback link to the video recording of the session for standalone purchase.

Playback Access

Once you have purchased the Playback, you will receive a link to a document download which includes the link and password for the recording together with the materials from the workshop.

Please note that the password-protected recording will be available to watch for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date the video will no longer be available to access.

Once you purchase this item, and after the workshop has taken place, you will be emailed (from press@outspokenpress.com) a link and password to the video recording of the workshop on our Vimeo page. This password-protected video will remain available for viewing for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date it will no longer be accessible.

‘The Myth Maker: Reimagining History, Memory and the Self in Poetry’ with Nick Makoha

This workshop explores how poets draw on myth, personal narrative, history, and cultural memory to create powerful and resonant work. Participants will engage with a range of texts, writing exercises, and discussions designed to help them develop their own myth-making practice and discover new ways of transforming lived experience into poetry.

Duration 3 hours

** This listing is for access to the video recording of the workshop only. If you would like to register to attend the workshop on Saturday 14 November 2026, view the listing here: Online Workshop: The Body of Work with Victoria Adukwei Bulley

If you are unable to attend the online workshop on the day, we’re pleased to make available a playback link to the video recording of the session for standalone purchase.

Playback Access

Once you have purchased the Playback, you will receive a link to a document download which includes the link and password for the recording together with the materials from the workshop.

Please note that the password-protected recording will be available to watch for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date the video will no longer be available to access.

Once you purchase this item, and after the workshop has taken place, you will be emailed (from press@outspokenpress.com) a link and password to the video recording of the workshop on our Vimeo page. This password-protected video will remain available for viewing for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date it will no longer be accessible.

The Body of Work with Victoria Adukwei Bulley

How can poems be fractals - capable of embodying both part and whole? What threads can link even the most disparate of ideas together across a book? Thinking with the format of pamphlet or collection in mind, this session explores how we can experiment with the arrangement of the poems that we already have, as well as how to write into the spaces of poems that are still to come.

Duration 3 hours

** This listing is for access to the video recording of the workshop only. If you would like to register to attend the workshop on Saturday 5 December 2026, view the listing here: Online Workshop: Run, Don't Walk from the Monstrous Cute! with Fran Lock

If you are unable to attend the online workshop on the day, we’re pleased to make available a playback link to the video recording of the session for standalone purchase.

Purchase

Once you have purchased the Playback, you will receive a link to a document download which includes the link and password for the recording together with the materials from the workshop.

Please note that the password-protected recording will be available to watch for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date the video will no longer be available to access.

Once you purchase this item, and after the workshop has taken place, you will be emailed (from press@outspokenpress.com) a link and password to the video recording of the workshop on our Vimeo page. This password-protected video will remain available for viewing for a limited duration of three weeks from the date of the workshop. After this date it will no longer be accessible.

'Run, Don't Walk from the Monstrous Cute!' with Fran Lock

In this workshop session we'll be checking in with a poetics of kitsch ephemera and schlocky body horror, as we brave the squishy, pinkly-terrifying realm of the "monstrous cute". Here, we will explore how poets as diverse as Dorothy Molloy, Aase Berg, Chelsey Minnis, Cathy Park-Hong, and Harry Josephine Giles deploy cuteness towards ambivalent and grotesque ends, speaking back to notions of genre, gender, class and kind. We will use the work of these poets as a spur to our own monstrous high-camp inventions. Saturated palettes at the ready! Swap subtly for sequins! And brace for impact.

Duration 3 hours