I'm planning some poetry courses to pitch to CPIT, to run during next year. (Yes, I know you're still waiting for specifics about the Summer School courses. Soon, truly!) The thing that's stumping me at the moment is the matter of when to run them. Weekends, weeknights, mornings, afternoons, evenings … I genuinely have no …
students and Paul Muldoon’s “Quoof”
The session before last, I showed my CPIT students a range of different modern sonnets, ending with the least typical of all, Paul Muldoon's Quoof. It caused quite a lot of discussion. Among other things, why a poet would risk such an out-there image as my hand on her breast like the smouldering one-off spoor …
Collaborative poems
Yesterday was the final class in my first series of tutoring for CPIT. Good fun! Although got through the material a lot faster than I expected. (Either I'm a brilliant teacher, or they were desperate to get me to shut up and go home...) One of the things that we did – a couple of …
Teaching, and why it’s good for you
I have a lot of respect for good teachers. For one thing, I come from a family of them. A good teacher can change a student's life – give them that little push they need to really grow into their potential. Mind you, a bad teacher can destroy potential just as easily. I had both …
What’s wrong with an MFA?
It's interesting to listen to writers on the subject of Creative Writing courses – not just MAs, MPhils, and MFAs, but the generic Creative Writing 101 course, offered by your local Community College or equivalent. So many writers, publishers, and critics will get themselves completed knotted up about the whole concept. Why? The usual reasons …
A Dark Feathered Art 