Online Courses and Workshops

Every night, dreams visit us—strange, mysterious, sometimes unsettling, always full of meaning. We’re delighted to partner with The Moon Lab to bring you this special workshop, where poetry becomes a bridge between the world of sleep and waking life.

Through creative prompts, simple writing exercises, and gestalt-inspired ‘poetry therapy’ techniques, you’ll discover ways to listen to, honour, and explore your dreams. No experience is needed, just bring your curiosity, a notebook or dream journal, and an open heart ready to meet the magic of your night world.

Cold settles across the land like a spell. In the wood, each leaf and twig are edged in frost, and from the ice-clogged fields rises a fog that blooms into lilac as the moon rises. 

The Wild Words courses are low pressure writing courses which help you ground your creativity in the turning year, and help you build a sustainable, daily creative habit. They are made up of daily seasonal writing prompts which focus on finding inspiration in the world around us, and which allow you to be flexible in terms of how much time you dedicate to them.

In January we will be celebrating all things winter: the frosty mornings, the sea frets, the silent beauty of falling snow, and the way the winter landscape welcomes us with bare branches and open cold. We will make new paths through the snow and curl in warm burrows, down with the roots. We will trace curliqued shapes in the frost, light candles, write back into the past and forward to the thaw. We will ponder and observe and listen. We will populate this winter month with stories, as it has always been.

HOW IT WORKS

Beginning on the first of January, you will receive a daily writing prompt delivered to your inbox. You can spend as much - or as little - time on each prompt as you like, from ten minutes to two hours.  We will write together for the month of January, and the course will finish on the 31st.

Wild Words: Winter is for anyone who would like to live more creatively, write more, or make an authentic connection with the natural world, and for writers working in any genre, whether you're a beginner or a more experienced writer. The cost of the course is £37 for a whole month of inspiration. The sign up button will take you to payment, but if you have any questions please do email me at crhooson@gmail.com

Please note these courses aim to provide you with inspiration and a creative framework, and they do not include an element of feedback.

ABOUT RHIANNON

Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet, author and editor. She has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and her first book, The Other City, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award.  She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster, and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches. Goliat, her second collection, is out now from Seren.

Find out more at rhiannonhooson.com

Writing a full-length work involves a long haul, and the journey to completion is rarely linear. Coaching is a powerful modality which supports and strengthens your creative practice so that you experience breakthroughs and create inner shifts in how you relate to your work-in-progress.

Book a series of five or ten online coaching sessions with our very own Poetry Pharmacy coach Julia Forster who specialises in working with poets and who has worked with hundreds writers of all genres to support and sustain their artistic practice. Explore your individual and singular gift to create.

How it works

Book an initial, free 30-minute conversation with Julia here and then decide which of the various coaching packages you’d like to book. Blocks of five sessions (£325) or ten sessions (£520) are available, with the option to add on a four-night writer retreat in the stylish Writers’ Cabin in Machynlleth, mid-Wales.

Coaching sessions are sixty minutes long, held on Zoom and at a frequency to suit you. Julia’s approach is strength-based and compassionate and is tailored individually to each client. 

About Julia Forster

Julia is a fully-qualified coach, specialising in coaching authors and poets, who also hosts writers on self-lead retreats in a Writers’ Cabin near Machynlleth, mid-Wales. With a career in publishing spanning over 25 years, she works freelance in PR for independent presses and is Co-Director of Being A Writer at The Literary Consultancy where she facilitates the group coaching programme, Amplify. Poets and poetry festivals she has devised PR campaigns for include: Deborah Alma; Dean Atta; Inua Ellams; Jacqueline Saphra and BBC Contains Strong Language.

She has published a novel What a Way to Go (Atlantic Books) and a book of non- fiction Muses (Oldcastle Books), while her poetry pamphlet is currently on submission.

Writing a poem is a personal thing, but there are skills to be learnt too, especially where editing your work is concerned, and our Poetry Surgeries aim to help you through this process. They offer a rare opportunity to work one on one with a professional poet, who will address any specific difficulties you are having as well as giving in depth feedback on each poem.

Receive detailed one to one advice on up to four of your own poems from resident Poetry Pharmacy poet Rhiannon Hooson. Poetry Surgeries are by appointment and can take place either face to face at the Poetry Pharmacy, or online.  There is a £60 charge for an hour long consultation.

How it works

You will submit your work in advance by email, then visit the Poetry Pharmacy where you’ll receive private and detailed feedback on your poems over coffee. If you can’t make it to Shropshire, your surgery can take place online or via email!  

Our approach is constructive, supportive and positive, and you’ll go away with concrete ideas for your work as well as plenty to think about.

About Rhiannon

Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet, author and editor. She has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and her first book, The Other City, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award. In the last few years, she has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster, and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches. Goliat, her second collection, is out now from Seren.

"Rhiannon was always so positive and clear in her feedback and I have come away with a host of new ideas that I would never have attempted without her support."

- Tina Cole