Wild encounters: Writing ourselves through animals and nature

In this workshop, we will explore encounters with nature and animals - whether real or imaginary, urban or remote, joyous or painful - as a way into writing about our identity and experience. We will take inspiration from poets including Mimi Khalvati, Carola Luther and Pascale Petit, as well as nature stories in the news and animal facts and tidbits that may have caught our eye.

About Elizabeth Gibson

Elizabeth Gibson lives in Manchester and writes about urban nature and animals through a queer and neurodivergent lens. Elizabeth's debut collection is A love the weight of an animal (Confingo, 2025), and poems have appeared in Atrium, Banshee, Butcher's Dog, Dust Poetry, fourteen poems, Lighthouse, Magma, Modron, The North, and Under the Radar. Elizabeth has been the recipient of a New North Poets Prize from the Northern Writers' Awards and has worked with organisations including Manchester Literature Festival, Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester Museum, Manchester Pride, and Yorkshire Dance. https://elizabeth-gibson.com

Zoom

These workshops will be conducted via Zoom. We have put together this simple 'How To' document to help you download Zoom, join a meeting, and navigate around the meeting features (such as adjusting video and audio, uploading files, and sharing screens).

You will receive a confirmation email from Ticket Tailor with your ticket and the Zoom invitation, containing the meeting link and Meeting ID & Password.

Someone from The Poetry Business team will be on hand prior to each workshop to offer additional help in getting connected.

There is usually a lot of interest in our workshops: in the interest of fairness, please limit yourself to one workshop ticket in every two week period.

Bursary Spaces

There are two bursary spaces available per workshop for writers from groups that are under-represented in contemporary poetry (for instance because of ethnic background) or who are experiencing financial hardship. If you would like to apply for one of these bursary places, please contact workshops@poetrybusiness.co.uk

Refunds

If you no longer wish to attend the workshop please let us know by emailing us. We ask for 3 working days' notice before the workshop starts in order to offer a full refund, and enable us to offer the place to someone else.

Though we will do all we can to help you get set up with the technology it is the participants' responsibility to ensure that their camera, microphone and other computer settings are configured correctly. Please contact us (workshops@poetrybusiness.co.uk) if you are concerned about getting set up for Zoom.