Writing Poems Inspired by Music and Song

If ekphrasis is (usually) a textual response to a visual piece of art, how does that change when the piece of art is a song? Do we respond differently to Pulp than to Puccini? To Bonnie Prince Billy or Bonnie Tyler or Beethoven? We'll be look at work by poets like Frank O Hara, Anthony Vahni Capildeo and Bob Cobbing, then create our own new poems in response to musical prompts. With poet Chrissy Williams.

About Chrissy Williams

Chrissy Williams is an award-winning poet, editor and comic book writer based in the UK. Her writing has been commended by the Forward Prizes, shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards, and featured on BBC radio and television. Her full poetry collections are Bear (Bloodaxe, 2017) and Low (Bloodaxe, 2021). She is editor of the online poetry journal PERVERSE. Her poetry comics collaboration with Tom Humberstone Introduction to Charts won the Selkie Award for Best Narrative Comic. She and Tom co-edited Over the Line: An Introduction to Poetry comics (Sidekick Books, 2015) about which Alan Moore said: “I really can’t recommend this venture highly enough.”

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.