Zoë Brigley is a Welsh-American poet, editor and educator. She is Senior Lecturer in English at The Ohio State University, Editor of Poetry Wales, and Joint Poetry Editor at Seren Books. She is also a founding editor of MODRON, a magazine of writing about nature and the ecological crisis. Zoë is the author of three poetry collections with Bloodaxe Books: The Secret, Conquest and Hand & Skull, all of which were selected as UK Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Her nonfiction includes Notes from a Swing State (Parthian Books, 2019), and her work has been recognised by the Eric Gregory Award, the Forward Prize and the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize. She has extensive experience teaching and mentoring poets, and working editorially with writers at different career stages, from those developing a first pamphlet or collection to established poets.
Writing the Body: Enchantment, Nature, and Embodiment (Poetry)
The body tells stories. It carries joy, trauma, love, and survival. It remembers roads we have walked, landscapes we have travelled, and the myths we have inherited.
In this week-long course, we will explore writing the body in all its complexity — through lenses of enchantment, nature, mental health, disability, body positivity and neutrality, and the lived experiences of bodies traditionally marginalized. Together, we will think about how writing can reclaim, celebrate, or reimagine the body — whether resisting the narratives that have been forced upon it, documenting lived experiences of illness or disability, or celebrating the beauty of bodies that exist beyond narrow cultural ideals. We will look to folklore, sensory experience, and the natural world while drawing from poets whose writing illuminates intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and more.
Workshops will be generative and exploratory, with opportunities to experiment with form, sound, and imagery. Afternoons will offer one-to-one feedback to help you refine your poems and develop your individual voice. This is a course for poets at any stage of their practice, but with a particular welcome to those interested in bold, tender, and truth-telling work that challenges conventional narratives of the body.
Tutors
Zoë Brigley
Rupinder Kaur Waraich
Rupinder Kaur Waraich (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, performer, yoga teacher and storyteller based in the West Midlands. Working across poetry, theatre, film and performance, she creates intimate feminist work exploring the intersections of body, language, memory, sexuality, spirituality and belonging. Guided by curiosity, her practice traces the connections between myth, lived experience and cultural inheritance, exploring art as a space for remembrance, resistance and transformation. Her debut poetry collection, Rooh (Verve Poetry Press, 2018), was followed by Tigress with Wings (Seren Books, 2026). Across all forms, her work is driven by an ongoing exploration of the artistic self as both vessel and reclamation. https://rupinderkw.com/
Guest Reader
Polly Atkin (Digital)
Polly Atkin (FRSL) is a poet and nonfiction writer, whose work focuses on nature, place and disability. Her poetry collections are Basic Nest Architecture (Seren: 2017), Much With Body (Seren: 2021) and Emergency Dream (Seren: 2026). Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth (Saraband: 2021), the first biography of Dorothy Wordsworth’s later life and illness, was longlisted for the Barbellion Prize 2022. Her memoir Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better (Sceptre: 2023 and Unnamed: 2024)) was named Lakeland Book of the Year 2024 and longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2024. Her third nonfiction book The Company of Owls ((Elliott and Thompson: 2024 and Milkweed: 2026) was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2025. Her poetry and prose appears in various anthologies and academic editions. She grew up in Nottingham then lived in East London for seven years before moving north to Cumbria. She has a PhD from Lancaster University and taught English and Creative Writing at QMUL, Lancaster University, and the Universities of Strathclyde and Cumbria. She works as a freelancer from her home in the English Lake District, where she co-owns the historic Grasmere bookshop Sam Read Bookseller.