Oxford School of Poetry launches

Poet and writer Dr Kirsten Norrie has launched a poetry school based on the Oxbridge model of one-to-one tutorials.

From next month, The Oxford School of Poetry will offer various courses for individuals and groups, who will receive one-hour tutorials and manuscript assessments. Courses offered in September include ‘The Language of the Street’, priced at £120, ‘Pre-Raphaelite Poetry’ (£240) and ‘Oxford Poets’ (£240).

Tutors include Damian Le Bas, academic Dr. Jenny McAuley and editor Luke Allan.

“There will be a reading list (and a watching one), a diminished sense of the 'group crit' or lightweight peer review and an enhanced responsibility on the part of the student to work,” said Norrie. “The emphasis is on deep and serious engagement with a commitment to thoroughly engaging with the material, be it Byronic meteorology or Jean-Michel Basquiat's language of the street.”

She added: “With excellent courses and mentoring available through other schools and sites on how to write poetry in all its technical intricacies, the OSP sidesteps these ideas of permission, examining instead how students might develop a poetic instinct or lens… We are not another grooming school for the publishing industry.”

The patrons of the school are Asif Khan, director of the Scottish Poetry Library; Ishion Hutchinson, a poet published by Faber & Faber; and Michael Schmidt, founder of Carcanet.

Norrie said prices are scaled “competitive” and that she hopes to introduce subsidised places as the school develops.