Theresa Lola is a British Nigerian multidisciplinary poet and artist. She has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and The Jazz Café, been commissioned by Rimowa and Selfridges, and designed programmes for Dulwich Picture Gallery and Hackney Museum. She is the author of two poetry collections. A poem from her debut book In Search of Equilibrium (Nine Arches Press, 2019) is in the UK’s GCSE syllabus. Her second collection Ceremony for the Nameless (Penguin, 2024) was praised in the Guardian as a book that “assures her place as a trailblazer for a new wave of poets.”
Poetry: Retelling Memories
Mon 10 August 2026 - Fri 14 August 2026
Tutors
/ Theresa Lola & Cecilia Knapp
Guest Reader
/ Hanan Issa (Digital)
Course Fee
/
From
£ per person
Genre
/ Poetry
Language
/ English
“But memories, we’re told, is the mother of the muses; memory is genius, really. But you have to do something with it.” – Robert Lowell
The truth is that memory is murky. But it has limitless territory – shifting, active, and precious. How do we tap into this rich reserve but go beyond retelling the events? We’ll discuss poems that acknowledge and embody the complexities of memory by using form, imagery, and repetition.
Explore ways to weave the real and re-imagined, use non-linear narratives, utilise repetition effectively, and blur the lines between truth and invention. There will be group workshops, one-to-one tutorials with feedback on your work, and guided exercises that draw out interesting ways to approach your own poetry.
Tutors
Theresa Lola
Cecilia Knapp
Cecilia Knapp is a poet and novelist and the former Young People’s Laureate for London. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward prize for best single poem. She is the winner of the 2021 Ruth Rendell award and has been shortlisted for the Rebecca Swift Women’s prize. Her debut poetry collection Peach Pig was published by Corsair in October 2022. Her poems have appeared in The Financial Times, Granta and The White Review. She curated the anthology Everything is Going to be alright: Poems for When You Really Need Them, published by Trapeze in 2021. Her debut novel Little Boxes is published by The Borough Press. Little Boxes was longlisted for The Authors Club Best First Novel Award. Her second novel Lack is forthcoming from The Borough Press in 2026. She teaches creative writing in a number of settings.
Guest Reader
Hanan Issa (Digital)
National Poet of Wales, Hanan Issa is a Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker and artist from Cardiff. Her publications include her poetry collection My Body Can House Two Hearts (Burning Eye Books, 2019) and her contributions to Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales (Repeater Books, 2022). Her winning monologue ‘With Her Back Straight’ was performed at the Bush Theatre as part of the Hijabi Monologues. She was also part of the writers’ room for Channel 4’s ground-breaking series We Are Lady Parts alongside its award-winning creator, Nida Manzoor. Hanan received a 2020 Ffilm Cymru/ BBC Wales commission for her short film The Golden Apple. Her work has been performed and published on platforms such as BBC Wales, ITV Wales, Huffington Post, StAnza Festival, Poetry Wales, Y Stamp, Wales Arts Review, Wales Arts International and the British Council. Hanan co-founded the Cardiff open-mic night Where I’m Coming From.