Poetry Together Workshops 2024

As Poetry Champion for Bedfordshire, I am delighted to invite you to the special Poetry Together Workshops 2024 event at Central Hall Westminster on 11th November. It promises to be a wonderful day, celebrating poetry – together.

There is limited availability and bookings will be taken on a first come first serve basis.

Please complete the Poetry Together Workshops 2024 booking form below to reserve your attendance and indicate your workshop preferences.

Event Booking

Event Details

Times & Location

Arrival time

There are two arrival time options; 9.30am-2pm and 10.15am -2.45pm.

We will be offered either.

Location

Central Hall Westminster

Storey’s Gate

London

SW1H 9NH

The nearest tube stations are St. James’s Park and Westminster.

Workshop details

Additional details

Lunch

Please bring a nut-free packed lunch which can be eaten on the main concourse.

Special assistance

If anyone in your group needs step-free access, please email femail@artundefined.co.uk. Some seated places are available for lunch for older guests or children who would benefit from a quieter space. Please email in advance to reserve this.

Photo permissions

Press and a photographer will be there on the day. If anyone within your group does not have photo permissions, please let me know so I can inform the Poetry Together team.

Workshop Details

Applying to perform

Over 70’s and under 18’s have the opportunity to apply to perform on stage in the Great Hall at the event. This can be as a group or solo with any poem.

Performances with the following criteria will be considered as part of our competition. Queen Camilla, one of our early supporters, is hoping to hear the poems of some of our winners.

Solo younger or older performers
A younger and older person performing together as a duet
Reciting original poems on this year’s theme of ‘friendship’

Please let me know if you would like to apply to perform.

Workshop Details

The Hosts

The Workshops

Steven Camden aka Polarbear

Internationally acclaimed spoken word artist, award winning author, poet and storyteller from Smethwick, near Birmingham.

Workshop: Join Steven for an interactive workshop about how to remove the pressure of writing and zoom in on a moment to create poems and stories full of emotion and detail.

Laura Mucha

Laura Mucha is an ex-lawyer turned poet and Author-in-Residence in the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, University of Cambridge.

Workshop: Join poet Laura Mucha to come up with ideas, cowrite and edit a poem about how our minds work. By the time you leave, you will have a much better idea of what writing
and editing poetry is all about – and hopefully also, the human mind! And you will have helped
write a finished poem!

Joseph Coelho

Joseph Coelho OBE is a best-selling, multiaward winning children’s playwright and author of over 45 books.

Join Joseph Coelho as he shares
some fun and simple ways of creating a poem using a range of different poetic devices from metaphors to similes from lines of alliteration to verse fizzing with onomatopoeia. This will be a fun and dynamic session accessible to all.

Coral Rumble

Coral is a popular poet and performer, who won the prestigious ‘Caterpillar Poetry Prize’ in 2018. Her collection, Riding a Lion’, was shortlisted for the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Awards, 2020, and she won the ‘Spark! School Book Awards’, 2023, with her collection, ‘Things That Should Be in a Poem’. Her verse novel, ‘Little Light’, was shortlisted for a UKLA Award, 2023. She has had 5 poetry collections published, alongside other books. Her debut novel for children, ‘Jakub’s Otter’, is out now!

Workshop: YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED! Get your thoughts racing and your words pacing, as you dig up days gone by and sketch out the memories. Enjoy the time and space to revisit important moments, as drawing and words work together.

Matt Goodfellow

Matt is an award-winning poet from Manchester. He was supposed to be a rock star but wasn’t very good at it. He worked as a primary school teacher for over 10 years before embarking on his poetry career

Workshop: Poetry as Rebel Writing – explore why poetry doesn’t follow the same rules as any other kind of writing and why accent and dialect can allow you to express your thoughts, feelings and idea in ‘your voice’ .

Claire Dyer

Claire Dyer is Poetry Consultant to the Council of the SWWJ, Reviews Co-ordinator for Two Rivers Press, has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London and is represented by Broo Doherty at DHH Literary Agency.

Workshop: ‘Line by Line: let’s build a poem about friendship. This workshop is designed to celebrate both poetry and friendship. In it we will look at and discuss some poems about friendship, and build an 8 line poem line by line which hopefully some of the participants will be willing to share by reading their poem out loud.

Poetry Together Workshops 2024 – Booking Form

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Please confirm the number of under 18's who would you like to attend.

Which age group(s) will the under 18's be? Recommended Y4-Y9. If different age groups please specify number by year group e.g. 15 Y5, 15 Y7

Please confirm the number of adults accompanying the under 18's and their age. (subject to availability)

If you have invited grandparents or members of your local elderly community to join you, please confirm this number of guests. If you have any access requirements, please also details below.

Please indicate your first choice workshop preferences. Please refer to the information pack, where you will find: - biographies of each poet - a description of the workshops on offer - a format of the day Each guest is invited to choose two workshops. Preferences will be allocated according to capacity on a first-come, first-served basis. We will try hard to accommodate higher-ranked preferences but cannot make guarantees. You will be told before the event which workshops have been allocated to your group.

Please indicate your second workshop preferences. Please see notes above.

Children and older guests have the opportunity to apply to perform on stage in the Great Hall at the event. This can be as a group or solo with of any poem. Solo younger or older performers, or a younger and older person performing together as duet, reciting original poems on this year's theme of 'friendship' will be considered as part of our competition. Queen Camilla, one of our early supporters, is hoping to hear the poems of some of our winners. Videos of their performances will need to be uploaded for consideration. Multiple links can uploaded. Successful performers will be informed ahead of the event. Please indicate below if you would like to apply to perform and if you would like to attend a workshop to assist with this.