Upcoming courses

Correspondence Courses

Our online/ correspondence courses are 4, 6, 8 or 12 weeks in length. Each week you receive a tutorial (via email) with written material and links to audio and video recordings. There are various quick tasks within the email and then one main writing task for the week. You can send that work to Live Canon for detailed written feedback each week. There is also an online discussion group for the course, which you can dip into at any time, and discuss work with other participants and get their feedback. The courses are designed to be as flexible as possible around your other life commitments - you don't need to be available at any specific time in the week.

Live Canon courses are taught by our director, Dr Helen Eastman, and our Senior Editor, Rebecca Hare.

Summer Term 2021
Writing Poetry for Children (6 weeks)
Find out more and book here: https://tinyurl.com/4wzenfbu

Gathering and Editing Your Collection (6 weeks)
Find out more and book here: https://tinyurl.com/2j5yu87y

Exploring metaphor (4 weeks)
Find out more and book here: https://tinyurl.com/8dz4npup

Ekphrastic poetry (6 weeks)
Find out more and book here: https://tinyurl.com/2d9tvpv3

Experimenting with Form (12 weeks)
Find out more and book here: https://tinyurl.com/ythzecwh

Autumn Term 2021
Promoting Your Poetry (4 weeks)
Playwriting for Poets (12 weeks)
Female war poets (8 weeks)
Writing the Classics – engaging with Greek and Roman myth and literature (12 weeks)

Writing science (12 weeks)

Spring Term 2022
Woman the Canon -18^th/19^th Century Female poets (12 weeks)
Found poems (6 weeks)
Political Poetry (12 weeks)
Gathering and Editing Your Collection (6 weeks)
The Historical Figure in Poetry (6 weeks)
Advanced Playwriting - for graduates of our playwriting course (12 weeks)

Summer Term 2022
Promoting Your Poetry (4 weeks)
Lyrics and Librettos (6 weeks)
Narrative poetry (6 weeks)
Playing with rhyme (4 weeks)
Lost Lionesses – 15^th/16^th Century Female poets (12 weeks)
Writing the Climate Crisis (12 weeks)

Written feedback

If you would like written feedback from Live Canon, outside the parameters of a course, don't hesitate to get in touch. We offer a feedback service at a cost of £50 (£25 for concessions) for written feedback on three poems. Email us at livecanon @ btinternet.com

One-on-one coaching

If you are a poet and would like some one-on-one help from Live Canon with performing your poetry (including voice, breath, preparing poems for performance, combatting nerves, microphone technique) then get in touch to find out more and book a session.

Feedback on our courses

From participants on our correspondence courses:

'The tutorials are absolutely packed with information, inspiration and ideas. Way more than I was expecting'.

'I've been on quite a lot of poetry courses. This is the first that has really changed me as a writer.'

'I found myself relating pretty much everything I was reading, writing or thinking to the course. It was three months of pure engagement for me'.

'This sort of correspondence course is a god send if, like me, you are on the other side of the world from the poetry community you used to be a part of...'

From partipants on Live Canon's 'Performing Your Poetry' course:

‘a stimulating and interesting day… it helped that it was a small group’

‘it was great to get to spend a day learning with some very impressive poets and theatrical professionals’

‘I felt I’d improved over the day. Of course that’s mainly an illusion, but I do feel that I now have the tools to improve and that I know what to do to start to get better and more confident.’

‘I thought it was incredibly good value… I felt that I got a lot of stuff packed in to my day’s worth of hours, and at a very reasonable cost.’

‘it was pretty much bang-on’

‘it was a perfect balance of instruction, interaction and practice’

‘I had a brilliant time and learned loads, thank you!’

‘A really helpful day’

‘if it had stopped at lunchtime, I would already have learnt an awful lot’