At Chester, our courses are designed with your future in mind. No matter what you’re studying, you’ll be learning from lectures and professionals with relevant, real experience and knowledge in their field.
New Book Published
Many of the staff within our Department of English are practising, published authors. For example, Dr Ian Seed, Programme Leader for BA Creative Writing, has recently published a new collection of prose poetry and flash fiction, New York Hotel, which was recently covered in the local press.
Visit from Prize-Winning Poet
We also enjoy regular visits from a range of writers. Our third year Creative Writing students were recently treated to a seminar with poet and workshop leader Kim Moore as part of the Writing Poetry for Publication module.
Kim read from her collection, The Art of Falling (Seren, 2015), then went on to give the background to some of the poems, reveal some of her drafting processes, discuss techniques she uses to craft her writing, and tell the story of her own route to publication before taking a number of questions from students.
Kim was recently awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for her debut collection of poetry, The Art of Falling. Previous winners include Seamus Heaney and JM Coetzee.
So what are Kim’s top tips for writing and publishing poetry? Here are just a few that she shared with our students:
- Be prepared to redraft and refine many times. The middle section of The Art of Falling took years to complete.
- Learn to enjoy the process of writing. Don’t become obsessed with product. Be patient.
- Read lots of poetry, including poetry you don’t like.
- If you get writer’s block, read some poems to get inspired, take a line from one of them and just start writing. If nothing else, just sit down with paper and pen and start free-writing.
- Join a writers’ group. Be supportive of other poets. That support will be returned.
- Research your subject matter. Find out what other poets have done.
- Get in touch with poets you admire. Poets like to know their work is being read and appreciated.
- Get your work out there. Keep a spreadsheet of where it has been sent and what the result is. Do not be discouraged by rejections, however many you get. Start with some of the smaller magazines, where the competition is less fierce, and build from there.
Want to Know More?
To find out more about our Creative Writing degree and the opportunities available whilst you study, please feel free to contact me, Ian Steed, the Programme Leader for the course, on i.seed@chester.ac.uk.
Visit Us
We would love to welcome anyone who has applied or is interested in applying for any of the courses within the Department of English. We have a range of opportunities to visit throughout the year. For more information, please email visitus@chester.ac.uk or call 01244 512800.
