More on Crafting an Award-winning Poem with Malika Booker 28/4/25

Malika Booker, the only woman (or non-binary person) to win the UK Forward Prize for Best Single Poem twice, will generously share the creative and editing processes behind her poem, Libation which won the 2023 Forward Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in the UK.

In this workshop, Malika will share her drafts and the evolution of this highly awarded poem. You will gain rare insight into how it was conceived, refined and completed. Malika will discuss how the poem was developed in the context of a regular writing practice during lockdown with the support of her peers, such as TS Eliot prize winner Roger Robinson. She sifted through a lot of material, including draft poems written ‘around’ the same theme that weren’t as strong, to allow this fabulous poem to shine through.

How can you make the most of a regular writing practice? How do you decide what is working or good enough? Can you set the bar high? How can your poetry peers help you hone your writing? What is the value of returning many times to one topic, even obsessively?  Malika will consider these questions and share her decisions and finely tuned edits that made the poem as strong as it could be within its context of ritual, culture, place, the personal and political.

Spend an inspiring hour and a half with Malika Booker's exceptional poetic energy and wisdom. These are small groups (one screen), so there will plenty of opportunity for discussion and to ask questions during the workshop.

Although this masterclass is the second part of a series – last year she reflected on ‘Little Miracles’, her first Forward Prize winning poem from 2020 – it is a completely independent workshop and you don’t have to have attended the first workshop to enjoy this one. It is also a very different approach to the previous workshop, but just as fascinating with new angles to reflect upon. 

      Malika Booker's session was revelatory. Fascinating to see the process that particular poem followed…The poem was a real labour of love – so moving and powerful in its final form. So glad I signed up for this encounter. Alice Willetts, on Malika’s previous masterclass

1.5 hours long

Start time: 10am UK time // 5pm Perth Australia // 6.30pm Adelaide & Darwin // 7pm Brisbane & Sydney, AEST // // 9pm NZ

Malika will talk you through her process of writing for an hour, then there will be half an hour for discussion and questions.

Cost £24 GBP (with cost effective exchange via STRIPE)

Online on Zoom

Advertised times on this site are in London, UK Timezone, but when you add the event to your calendar it should be correct for your local time zone.

You can check your timezone against London UK time here: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Malika Booker, is a British poet, theatre-maker, performer and multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian parentage. She is a winner of a Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award for poetry and the only woman to win the UK Forward Prize for Best Single Poem Prize twice! A third poem has been shortlisted for the same prize. Her collection Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press) was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas and the Seamus Heaney Centre prize. She is published with Sharon Olds and Warsan Shire in The Penguins Modern Poet Series 3: Your Family: Your Body (2017), and has written and performed in many highly successful full-length theatrical poetry shows. Malika was chair of judges for The Forward Prize in 2016 and chair of judges for the international Manchester Poetry Prize. She’s a fellow of both The Complete Works and Cave Canem, as well as inaugural poet in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was a Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in Creative Writing and LHRI Fellow at Leeds University and currently teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University. Malika is a founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective that has nurtured many leading poets.

Zoom link and materials will be sent by email at least 2 days prior. If you don’t receive it get in touch with me.

More events here https://www.cathdrake.com