Winter Solstice and Turning Points

On the evening of the shortest day and longest night, we’ll explore this deep, dark turning point in the year. How can poetry meet this mysterious moment? How might we use turning points in our poems? In this inclusive generative writing workshop, we’ll explore poems from Kathleen Jamie, John Donne, Anne Carson and Anthony Capildeo, using close reading and a range of creative prompts and exercises. Links to interviews, accompanying readings and ambient music will also be provided for your further exploration and enjoyment afterwards.

Join expert poetry tutor Susie Wilson as she helps you put pen to paper in a 90 minute workshop filled with inspiring discussion and writing exercises.

About Susie Wilson

Susie Wilson is a Scottish poet living in Sheffield. She has published two pamphlets, Skin the Rabbit (The Braag, 2025) and Nowhere Near As Safe As A Snake In Bed (Verve Poetry Press, 2024) which won the Disabled Poets Prize 2024. She spent 2026 writing about rivers (The Don in South Yorkshire and The Spey) funded by the Arts Council, including writing and performing in clown and collaborating with musicians, with pieces from that project published in Ambient Receiver, Tears in the Fence and forthcoming in Under the Radar. Her work has also appeared widely including in Acumen, Black Bough, Carmen et Error, Gather, Ink Sweat & Tears, Northern Gravy (which she has recently Guest Edited), Propel, the Scottish Poetry Library and Stand. She has performed poetry widely including at Lyra Festival Bristol, Poetry @ Leeds, Hull WOW, Manchester Poetry Library, Sheffield University’s Centre for Poetics and Site Gallery, Sheffield.

Susie mentors, tutors (including providing poetry tuition, a mentoring service enabling people to learn through practice at their own pace) and facilitates, including for Writing East Midlands’ Beyond the Spectrum, Manchester Poetry Library, Sheffield Central Library's Sub Club, which now also runs online as Susie’s Poetry Sub Club, and for Sheaf Poetry Festival, hosting the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize Shadow Judging reading group 2026. She also voluntarily runs the free listing service, What’s On in Sheffield Poetry. To join, please go to: https://forms.gle/tefPGokrzLySnUhB6 She loves drawing, learning to play jazz piano, caring for rivers, inclusivity and raising up local poets.

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.